Do this in remembrance of me Each of our liturgical readings tonight ends with a command, an exhortation, or simply a statement of fact, all of which are intended to take an historical event and make it present for future generations. About the Passover meal: this is a memorial feast for you… Read More »Holy Thursday, April 9th
“Surely it is not I, Lord?” Valentin de Boulogne, Last Supper The early Christian community was deeply shaken by what Judas had done. That one of the inner circle, to whom he had confided so much, could have betrayed him, was shocking. That comes through in today’s Gospel when, after telling… Read More »Wednesday, April 8th
The impetuous one goes to school Gerard Seghers – Repentance of St Peter I’m drawn to the apostle Peter on this Tuesday of Holy Week. Peter, the impetuous one. “Master, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” We can call this another moment in the… Read More »Tuesday, April 7th
Letting her hair down. We’ve taken to responding “perfect” these days to texts and emails making arrangements of one sort or another. It’s so common that, however reassuring, my contrarian self usually avoids it. Not so with what Mary does in today’s Gospel: anointing the feet of Jesus with a large quantity… Read More »Monday, April 6th
The vain delights that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood… Holy Week is not for the faint of heart. A good prayer at the beginning of this sacred time is to have the courage to face these events as they unfold, not to turn away from them,… Read More »Palm Sunday, April 5th
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. During Holy Week we commemorate the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and celebrate with great joy the victory he won for us over sin and death. In this time of… Read More »Holy Week reflections begin on Sunday
The most harrowing, heart-breaking aspect of this pandemic is the enforced separation of the sick and dying from those who love them. Having to stay away from your spouse or your parent or your best friend at their time of greatest need, how terrible is that. And then, in the… Read More »Seeing our way through
Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1661–1669 The longest of the three parables on God’s mercy in chapter 15 of Luke’s Gospel bears the traditional title of The Prodigal Son, named after the younger son who wasted his inheritance in a foreign land. Since the father is the central figure… Read More »Lost in place
In a piece for Assumption’s alumni magazine a few years back, I was musing on the fact that students rate getting a good job as the #1 reason for going to college. No surprise there, but there’s an irony lurking in that. The more apparently practical and pragmatic one approaches the… Read More »What is a sure bet?
Birth stories in the ancient world were told in order to honor a person of great stature and to anticipate, by the details surrounding the birth, his or her heroic or saintly deeds. I have my own birth story that, consistent with the non-heroic temper of our time, reverses the… Read More »Inauspicious Beginnings