OCCASIONAL - Index

Expedition climbing always involves groups of climbers who spend more time on the mountain and proceed more slowly along the narrow way that leads to life [Mt 7:14] than does the “alpiner”, a solitary climber who takes a route he will not use again and whose whole risky effort depends on speed. Everything that is “Church”, everything that is Catholic centers on the solemn procession of a community which, in spirit and truth, ascends to the “summit” of faith—the fullness of the Eucharistic blessing in the lives of the faithful.

Jesus walked across the Sea of Galilee as if he were on dry land. This event, magnified by the disciples exhaustion and panic, engraved itself indelibly in the mind of the early Christians long before the four gospels were written.

First Mass homily offered September 13, 1992 after my ordination to the priesthood on September 12, 1992.

Our divine lesson today proclaims that Jesus Christ makes the first move in your life: "You did not choose me," says the Lord, "but I chose you." [Jn 15:16] Jesus Christ will heal you and feed you, spiritually and physically, to make known God's glory.

After receiving reports of a ghost ship, the Australian navy boarded a 65-foot vessel drifting aimlessly in the Indian Ocean about 185 miles west of the fishing port of Broome.

Well, each one of us is a leaf on our parish school "tree". And in the next few days, all of us "leaves" are going to leave the tree and the wind is going to carry us to different directions all through the summer. And just like real leaves are sent by God back down to the ground to enrich the soil, God sends his little elementary school "leaves" to all directions, north, south, east and west, to enrich the world. This is what the Holy Spirit helps us to do.

The aggressive secular agenda is a playbook for wholesale aggression against human life and sexuality. Promiscuity is neither the price of freedom nor a roadmap to Shangri-la but a downward spiraling binge-purge of surfeited consumerism. There is a term for this: Original sin. The massive fact staring at us is that human beings are fallen creatures capable of creating meaning where none exists. When ordinary people give in to lassitude and give up trying to distinguish the truth from the imaginary, irrational optimism fills the void. This phenomenon is not neutral as if human beings, liberated from religious and philosophical mumbo-jumbo, are now parked at a cultural rest-stop between extremes. Rather it is a prelude to the horrifying spectacle of a civilized community devouring itself with jaw-dropping cruelty.

Actually, miracles occur when our eyes of faith and our human eyesight converge for a few moments—a short while—and we see heaven and earth come together. Our perceptions become extraordinary, and we are able to see things, and into things, and know things that are truly beyond ordinary human powers.

The pool of Bethsaida, near Jerusalem's Sheep Gate, was a shrine for the infirm who sheltered there. Although the pool was revered by first century Palestinian Jews, its healing properties were not sufficient for curing large numbers of sick and infirm.