Tuesday, April 28, 2009

By Terrance Callan

Fourth Sunday of Easter (B): Acts 4:8-12; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18

During the Easter Season we focus our attention on the death and resurrection of Jesus as the means of our salvation. We do the same thing every time we celebrate the Eucharist any time during the year.

Although the idea that we have been saved by Jesus’ death and resurrection is very familiar to us, we can always grow in our understanding of it.
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

By Father Rob Waller

Do you remember the Lone Ranger? Who was always with him? Exactly! Tonto. Apparently, the Masked Man was not really a lone ranger. He had a faithful, human companion. Even with his silver bullets to protect him and his white stallion on which to ride into danger and to ride into the sunset, he needed a human at his side to help him right wrongs and to protect his back.

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

By Sister Carol Gaeke, O.P.

“God made man is His own image and man has returned the compliment,” quipped the French philosopher Voltaire. This tongue-in-cheek line reveals two sides of the Easter mystery. On one is the belief in God becoming human and then being taken back up into the divinity at the Resurrection. The other side says that Resurrection is political dynamite.
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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

By Father Timothy P. Schehr

Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31

This Sunday the apostle Thomas takes his famous misstep in faith. He needs absolute proof before he will believe his brother apostles have seen the Lord. It is a disappointing stance from someone who spent so much time with the Lord. He had even seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead!

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Wednesday, April 8, 2009

By Christie Hadley

Christianity has always been a part of my life, but I knew I was searching for something deeper, something more — something to bring me closer to God. I found that something in the Catholic Church, and in a few days I will stand in front of the congregation at St. Gabriel Parish in Glendale and be confirmed.

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Wednesday, April 8, 2009

By Father Kyle Schnippel

One saint stands out in a particular way among parish priests. Known for his own personal holiness, his doggedness in completing seminary and his dedication to time in the confessional, St. John Marie Vianney, the Curé of Ars, is called upon to provide patronage and guidance for all parish priests of today.

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Wednesday, April 8, 2009

By Father Timothy P. Schehr

Acts 10:34-43; Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; John 20:1-9

John’s Easter Gospel is remarkable for its simplicity and its silence. John lets us discover the wonderful truth of the Lord’s victory over death by letting us see it for ourselves as we follow in the steps of the very first witnesses.

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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

By Father Earl Fernandes

In his online report March 20, John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter wrote: “It’s almost as if the pope has made two separate visits to Cameroon: the one reported internationally and the one Africans actually experienced. In the U.S. and many other parts of the world, coverage has been ‘all condoms, all the time,’ triggered by comments from Benedict aboard the papal plane to the effect that condoms aren’t the right way to fight AIDS. In Africa, meanwhile, the trip has been a hit…”

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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

By Scott Mussari

Three essentially obscure men — Gregory Bryant-Bey, Brett Hartman and Dismas — are separated by thousands of years and tens of thousands of miles, and yet are linked by one common distinction. All three were considered useless and worthless and deemed disposable by society.

In actuality these men shared more than merely this valueless categorization.  Each of them was a criminal convicted of heinous and violent crimes. Each existed in virtual anonymity until the very end of their lives. The people in power and the governments of their day sentenced each to the death penalty.

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

By Father Tim Schehr

Palm Sunday: Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Mark 14:1-15:47

Is there a way to make this Sunday’s “long Gospel” seem a little shorter? Try listening for the many spiritual lessons we can find in the lesser known characters in Mark’s account of the Lord’s passion and death.

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