This morning, we celebrate the Feast of St. Bartholomew, the Apostle. Just a quick word about this Gospel: tradition holds that Nathanael and Bartholomew were the same person. Many Scripture scholars attest to this, arguing that Bartholomew is more likely Nathanael’s surname. Bartholomew actually means “son of Tolmai.” Remember, anytime in Scripture where we see…
I think all of us can relate to the young man in this particular passage from Matthew. We all desire to do what is good. We all want to do our best in life so that we can enjoy eternity with God in the life to come. And I’m sure many of us go to…
In 2016, I had the privilege of going to Poland for World Youth Day with a group from Orlando. One of the more emotional experiences that we had came when we visited the concentration camps of Auschwitz. You could really feel the weight of the evil and the darkness that had taken place there. Yet,…
There is a line from our first reading that I have been reflecting on this morning. It says: “This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other” (Dt 4:39). God is all powerful,…
One of the most interesting stories about St. Lawrence, and probably my favorite story about any saint is the legend surrounding his martyrdom. Lawrence was kind of a smart aleck. The story goes that, as one of the seven deacons for the Church in Rome, he was responsible for the material goods of the Church…
This story from today’s Gospel about the mother of James and John approaching Jesus and asking Him to allow her sons to sit at His right and left, shows just how misunderstood Jesus was by even some of His closest disciples. So many of them initially believed that Jesus was going to be a political…
This might come as a surprise to many of you – to others maybe not so much – but I am not the most patient person. In fact, I’m not really that patient at all. You can ask my brother priests about that and they will absolutely agree with that statement, especially Fr. Martin. I…
On the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in December 1990, Pope St. John Paul II released his encyclical letter Redemptoris Missio. In it, he wrote about the mission of the Church, the mission of all of us as the people of God, to carry out and bring to completion the mission of…
Over the last few weeks, I know that I have been preaching more and more about the state of the world and how opposed it is currently to the Church and the tenets of our faith. It seems so deaf to the message of the Gospel. And, at times, it might even seem as though…
Cardinal Joseph Zen is the 91-year-old Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong. Over the last several decades now, he has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese government and its treatment of its citizens, specifically calling out issues regarding human rights, political freedom, and religious liberty. He has organized financial support for the underground Church in…
Fr. Tom Pringle 