Recall times when your initial no was transformed into a new way of following Christ.

Today’s Gospel seems to challenge fairness, preferring concern for the “last.”

Jesus' parable states that all church order is subject to the law of mercy and forgiveness.

“Denying one’s self” is more profound than daily acts of “mortification.” It means displacing one’s self from the center of our consciousness while looking to the true self embodied by Jesus’ teaching.

Church life in the last six months has been dominated by shameful actions of some of its priests and hierarchy and is now preoccupied although belatedly with protecting its most vulnerable members The fourth of the great discourses of Jesus in Matthew Ch 18 called the Sermon on the Church a

Though Matthew stresses that the primary mission of Jesus was to the ldquo house of Israel rdquo in today rsquo s Gospel a non-Jewish woman draws him to a more universalistic vision Narrated by both Mark 7 24-30 and Matthew this story of courageous faith and boundary-crossing challenges the c