Second Sunday of Easter – April 27, 2025 Ten-year-old Laura Lentz’s father examined the letter she was writing to her favorite cousin. “All you do is write about yourself,” the future author recalled him saying. He placed another paper in … Read More
Fifth Sunday of Lent – April 6, 2025 Last Sunday’s backstory of the Israelites crossing the Jordan River as they had once done at the Red Sea is a good lead-in to today’s first reading. But it also seems to … Read More
Fourth Sunday of Lent – Mar 30, 2025 Led by Joshua, successor to Moses, and following the Ark of the Covenant, the Israelites finally arrive at the banks of the Jordan. Forty years earlier, they also stood on a shoreline … Read More
Third Sunday of Lent – Mar 23, 2025 Burning bushes and barren fig trees, a call to lead and a call to repent. The connection between today’s first reading and its paired Gospel passage isn’t immediately obvious. Perhaps that is … Read More
Second Sunday of Lent – Mar 16, 2025 In his commentary on this passage (workingpreacher.com), biblical scholar Justin Michael Reed highlights a bias revealed in the omitted verses from today’s Genesis pericope. The catalyst for God’s promise to Abram of … Read More
First Sunday of Lent – Mar 9, 2025 Some biblical scholars describe today’s passage from Deuteronomy as an early historical creed. Standing at the edge of the promised land, Moses teaches the Israelites the rituals that will help them remember … Read More
Ash Wednesday – Mar 5, 2025 Leadership gurus say that if you want to inspire change, “start with why.” Why is it important? Why does it matter? Why should anyone care? In today’s first reading, the prophet Joel lays out … Read More
Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Mar 2, 2025 On this last Sunday before Lent, parishes are preparing to send their catechumens, whom they discern ready for initiation, to their bishop for election next week. At that rite, the bishop … Read More
Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time – Feb 23, 2025 Jesus’s lessons this Sunday from his sermon on the plain are especially necessary today in our polarized church and nation. When people are entrenched in their own standpoints, unwilling to let … Read More
Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Feb 16, 2025 Before the passage from today’s Gospel, we find Jesus choosing his twelve closest partners. Many more had begun following him, compelled by his miraculous healing power and ability to persuade, teach, … Read More