The Good Word

If preaching the Gospel is a vocation it seems odd that little attention is paid to its potential in candidates for the priesthood Can he do the studies is the first question that tends to come to mind meaning the whole panoply of academic philosophy and theology that will engage him for six o

As regular readers of The Good Word know one of our frequent contributors is Father Richard Leonard an Australian Jesuit who splits his time between the Jesuit Theological College in Australia and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome If you d like to hear more from Father Leonard be s

This Sunday is the nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Daniel Harrington writes about faith and hope Sunday s reading from Hebrews he notes contains the only explicit definition of faith in the Bible Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen Dianne

A well known short story dating from 1916 is Franz Kafka s Metamorphosis In it the protagonist Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning and finds that during the night he has been somehow transformed into a cockroach This story became one of the defining pieces of the Twentieth Century a period who

For those interested in one more take on the reinstatement of the Latin liturgy Commonweal has posted the first of four articles in their upcoming issue about the change The title says it all– A Step Backward Author Rita Ferrone points out some striking problems such as the exclusion of women

This Sunday is the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Father Daniel Harrington writes that the Old Testament wisdom books and the New Testament writings have some wise things to say about money and possessions While affirming that we live in the real world of commerce they teach us that we shou

I raised the issue of doing typological interpretation in our time in my last post and let me reiterate that I have no problem with typology as a method of interpretation employed by the early Church Moreover I find typology meaningful in the liturgies at Christmas and Easter What I have a probl

Wisdom of Solomon also known as the Book of Wisdom offers a perspective on Luke 12 An extended essay in elegant Greek Wisdom of Solomon was written for Egyptian Jews around the first century B C Like some of the literature produced in this period it retells biblical traditions in an elaborate

18th Sunday We only have to look at so-called reality television to see just how far some of our compatriots will go to be famous to be wealthy or to be part of the popular imagination We should never be surprised when our media culture reflects this back to us And by watching these programs re

Seventeenth Sunday of the Year Gen 18 20-32 Col 2 12-14 Luke 11 1-13 Today s readings are about the power of prayer In the first reading Abraham pleads with God to spare the people of Sodom and Gomorrah In the gospel passage Jesus urges us to ask his Father for what we need and assures u