Thursday, September 16, 2010 By Father Earl Fernandes In early September I visited retired priests at St. Charles Seminary in Carthagena. Father Jim Byrne had just celebrated his 99th birthday, and Father Anselm Boeke his 92nd. Father John Bensman at 80 was the “spring chicken.” They were inspirational and truly …

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 By Sister Betty J. Lillie, S.C. Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Amos 6:1a, 4-7; Psalm 146:7-10; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16: 9-31 As the summer wanes and we all would like to sit back and rest, we are challenged by readings that deal with some heavy …

Thursday, September 9, 2010 By Jeanne Hunt On a recent trip to Italy, I discovered my next, easy occupation. I would like to be the woman in the Sistine Chapel with a microphone shouting, “Silenzio! Silenzio!” to the hundreds of tourists who insist on making noise.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010 By Sister Betty J. Lillie, S.C. Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14;  Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19;  1 Timothy 1:12-17;  Luke 15:1-32 The readings of today’s Mass work around the idea of joy that a person has in recovering what was lost. Luke’s long …

Thursday, September 2, 2010 By Father Kyle Schnippel“In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with His Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit.” With these words, from the introduction to the fourth section of …

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 By Sister Betty J. Lillie, S.C. Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time: Wisdom 9:13-18b; Psalm 90:3-6, 12-17; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33 Now that summer is morphing into fall and being transformed into the gorgeous colors of the new season, we might be looking back at the …

Thursday, August 19, 2010 By Father Earl Fernandes The academic calendar has ruled my life. From 1977 until 2002, when I was ordained a priest, I was in school. After that, I spent time as a high school teacher, a graduate student and a seminary professor.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010 By Terrance Callan Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time: Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30 One way to create a large, diverse group is to include in it everyone who wants to be included. However, a sizable, diverse group can also arise when the requirements for …

Thursday, August 5, 2010 By Jeanne Hunt A few weeks ago, I was caring for my two grandsons. I was putting them to bed and thought it might be nice to start teaching them how to pray. Lewis is 4 and Liam is 2, just the right ages to begin …

Wednesday, August 4, 2010 By Terrance Callan Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Wisdom 18:6-9; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19; Luke 12:32-48 We often alternate between excessive trust and excessive skepticism concerning predictions of the future. Sometimes we give weather forecasts, economic predictions and other attempts to describe the future too much credit; …