Do No Harm

02-24-2019Weekly Reflection

We listen quite a while before we get to the “punch line” of the first reading today: even though it would be an easy thing to do, David will not harm the anointed one of the Lord. We, of course, know that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one of God, but the Bible uses this term for many different people. It is scripture’s way of indicating who has been chosen by God for a special place and mission in salvation history.

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Blessed

02-17-2019Weekly Reflection

When we think of the word “Beatitude” we think of today’s discourse from Luke’s Gospel or the more familiar one from Matthew (which begins “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . ”). Actually, beatitudes occur throughout the prophets and Gospels.

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God's Summons

02-10-2019Weekly Reflection

Confronted with God’s power and majesty, the first response of the prophet Isaiah was to acknowledge his sinfulness. “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips,” he said aloud. Likewise, with his empty fishing nets dramatically filled at Jesus’ instruction, Peter fell to his knees and cried out, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

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In Heaven, Everyone's in the Choir

02-03-2019Weekly Reflection

The song of the angels, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” resounds from our lips at every Mass. There was a widespread belief in the first religions of the world that God stirred creation into being by a word, a song, a musical note. Music and a sense of God’s presence have always been inseparable.

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