The Good Word

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The National Catholic Bible Conference was held this summer in Chicago Among the talks it advertised was one entitled Old Testament Wars and the Spiritual Battle I did not go to the conference but I was intrigued by the description of this talk in the brochure I received How should we inter

Twenty-Second Sunday of the Year Sir 3 17-18 20 28-29 Heb 12 18-19 22-24 Luke 14 1 7-14 We all care about what other people think of us We want to be respected and to be taken seriously Our reputation is important to us And that s the way it should be On the other hand we would all agre

22nd Sunday One of the most basic human responses to anything new is to ask What s in it for me We would like to think our motives are pure and our interests are for others but there is often a nagging voice reminding us that selfish desires are never far from the surface That said we all

This Sunday is the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Fr Daniel Harrington writes about the notion of universalism which was often debated by the Jewish leaders of Jesus time As a theological doctrine universalism claims that all of us will be saved or restored to holiness and happiness The bib

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In today s gospel someone asks Jesus the question that we have all wondered about Will few or many be saved Jesus doesn t answer directly He says Try to squeeze through a narrow door He doesn t say how many will make it but he says clearly that some will not In the first reading f

21st Sunday Ordinary Time Today s readings present a certain tension On the one hand there are images of salvation reaching to all parts of the world the gathering of nations of every language to see God s glory Isa 66 18 the coming of peoples from the east and the west and from th

21st Sunday Ordinary Time Isa 66 18-21 is the conclusion of the book of Isaiah that began with God s condemnation of Zion a sacred name for Jerusalem as utterly corrupt 1 21-28 and his promise of a purifying visitation or judgment that would make it righteous This threatening passage howe

This Sunday is the 20th in Ordinary Time Fr Daniel Harrington writes that Luke s Gospel reading presents three initially puzzling sayings of Jesus He proclaims that he has come to light a fire on earth to undergo a baptism of death and to bring division rather than peace What happened to an