The Word

Recently the Jesuits were given pastoral care of St Patrick rsquo s Parish in Oakland Calif a small but spirited community composed mainly of African Americans and Hispanics a community that radiates hospitality One of the great saints of the parish is Mother Dumas age 99 matriarch of a larg

During the summer months people are on the move as luggage-laden cars inch along packed highways or hordes of people head for airportsall with the hope of some restful change from ordinary life Today rsquo s readings picture people on the move but for very different reasons The reading from Isaia

Eery few parables of Jesus have had the impact of the story of the Samaritan who stops and helps an injured man on the desolate road to Jericho The Good Samaritan has been portrayed in art at the Lancet Window at Chartres and by Bassano Giordano and Rembrandt Hospitals and health care systems hav

I never forget my visit to Kenya over 20 years ago I arrived in Nairobi after a long journey and received a kind welcome at the airport only to be sent on a perilous journey to the Gaba Institute in Eldoret I traveled along the winding roads of the Great Rift Valley in a matatu a local taxi with

The solemnity of St John the Baptist is a prelude to the Lukan readings about to unfold in the remainder of Ordinary Time John the Baptist wears a multicolored coat in the New Testament He is a wild desert preacher dressed only in camel skin and eating locusts and wild honey who inaugurates a wi

Homilists often cringe when faced with the prospect of preaching on Trinity Sunday It is the only feast that seems to be named after a doctrine and many of a certain generation were taught that it was a mysterium stricte dictum that is totally beyond human comprehension and expressible only thro

Dating from the Middle Ages this feast seems to duplicate the liturgy of Holy Thursday but also looks forward to the weekly eucharistic celebrations of ordinary time It is often celebrated with a festive procession which can symbolize our need for the Eucharist in our own pilgrimage Three themes

Beginning in January 1977 the nation was captivated by the moving drama ldquo Roots rdquo which told of the origin and earliest days of an African-American family It enabled people to see their African-American brothers and sisters in a new light as a people with a noble heritage who had underg

For almost four years Tuesdays With Morrie has appeared on the best-seller list of The New York Times It is a moving account by Mitch Albom of conversations with his dying mentor Morrie Schwartz who had earlier taught a course on ldquo The Meaning of Life rdquo and now unfolded even deeper mean

Only Luke recounts the story of Christ rsquo s ascension and it often seems a puzzling feast A number of years ago I attended a children rsquo s liturgy in a vibrant parish The priest told the children that he had bought a special gift to celebrate Ascension Thursday and asked them to guess what