Earlier this month, notes were up on the bulletin board for days, asking for Sisters to take turns sitting in prayer with Sister Bridget Kiniry as she hovered between life and death. And then she woke up—again (for this was not the first time Sister Bridget has been near that horizon of death). She reflects […]
Sister Bridget Comes Back to Life Again Read More »
Sister Bridget Kiniry shared the following reflection at Dominican Convent. We are here to celebrate the Mass on Christmas Day. The readings chosen for this Mass leave us with a full message of all the Nativity readings, as they are called by the Church. Each of the previous Masses gave us a piece of this
Sister Bridget Kiniry offered this reflection at the Thanksgiving Day Mass in Domincian Convent. Probably each of us has a heart and head full of thoughts and memories of past celebrations. Today we may find our gratefulness clouded by an awareness of all the turmoil and suffering in the world. Still, we are here giving
Here We Are Today, Thanksgiving 2023 Read More »
Today the Christian community specifically honors these three Archangels. While we are honoring them, we will do so by looking at this question: What is the TRUTH about angels whom we associate as heavenly messengers of comfort and courage? Just as a point of interest, as I began preparing these reflections, I came across Thomas
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“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, So that EVERYONE who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life” John 3:16 Just to pronounce, to say “EXALTED,” gives a rise to one’s spirit. We have something extraordinary to celebrate today! Yet, we are ever mindful that all
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We celebrate James in mid-summer, so I do feel like a haze has to lift for me to get started. Maybe, it was a hazy, early summer morning when Jesus called his first disciples and found James and his brother John with their father, Zebedee, fixing their fishing nets. (Mark 1:18) Many had probably heard something about him, but they were not expecting, after a long evening of fishing, to be called right then. But yes, he calls them to just leave their nets and follow him. And they did!
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Some liturgical feast days are very familiar to us, and most certainly our feast today is one of them. How significant do you think it is for today’s Catholic people? Our first response might be that it has little or no significance to them. But we need to explore more deeply.
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This icon of St. Mark the Evangelist is found at St. Mark Parish in Phoenix. (Ambria Hammel/CATHOLIC SUN) How often do we hear the very familiar words announcing the Gospel according to Mark? Mark’s Gospel was probably written between 65-70 CE and provided both Matthew and Luke with sources for their Gospels. Do we ever
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There must be something about being green—just look around! But beyond the shamrocks and harps can we, using a slightly green lens, explore how Celtic Christianity Spirituality is echoed in Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ encyclical? Doing some web searching I found a paper by Kevin Vaughn titled: The Imagination of Interconnection: Laudato Si’ and Celtic
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Sometime last year I was surfing the internet and I came upon an article titled: “A Thomistic Approach to the Moral Evils of Racism,” by Therese Scarpelli Cory, Associate Professor of Thomistic Studies at Notre Dame. The title interested me, and I scanned the article and put it away to read at a later time.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, OP Read More »
When we hear the sentence from the eighteenth chapter of the Book of Wisdom, “When all was in quiet stillness and the night was during its course,” just the sound of these words takes us beyond ourselves. Where do we go? We travel into a deep and safe silence that belongs to Christmas Eve. There
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On October 11, we marked the Feast of John XXlll, which is neither his birth nor his death in 1962. However, he officially opened the Second Vatican Council. In his opening remarks at the Council, he said that the Gospel of Jesus had not changed but we have grown to understand it better. The Council
September comes softly; for some of us maybe with a glistening tear because that is what beauty can do. Lyrics from the musical “The Fantasticks” come to mind: “Try to remember the days of September when life was so tender that no one wept except the willow.” How can we look into all this golden
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The encyclical letter Laudato Sí (“Praise be to You, my Lord”) was issued by Pope Francis in 2015. Sister Carolyn Wolfbauer (d. 2022) and I discussed with excitement and hope what the letter could mean for a world confronted by the destruction of climate change. Since its publication, millions of sincere and resolute people—scientists, theologians,
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Some years ago, I visited Mt. Vernon, home of George Washington. A beautiful early spring day brought many people, many families out to visit the site. It was lovely to see so many young families of diverse ethnic heritages. I found myself totally distracted by the number of Black families touring the facilities. How, I
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It is hard to believe. We’re still saying, “Happy New Year,” yet we are now ready to mark Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 17th. Every year, many tributes to Dr. King include references to his “I Have A Dream” speech. Does Dr. King’s statement “I have a dream….” make him a
Gather The Dreamers Read More »