Today, we celebrate the feast of St. John Chrysostom, a Doctor of the Church and a Bishop, who authored many homilies, letters, treatises, essays, and commentaries on the Scriptures and various other aspects of our faith. He is known for his great skills as an orator; in fact, Chrysostom means "gold mouthed." In one of…
Every time I read this particular Gospel, I find myself laughing because what we're seeing is the Scribes and the Pharisees basically throwing a tantrum about something Jesus has done. Are they not going to learn?! Whenever Jesus does something good, these men revert back to being children who aren't getting their way. They don't…
Today we celebrate the Memorial of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, an abbot and a Doctor of the Church. He was a Doctor of the Church because of his spirituality and his defense of the teachings of the Church. Bernard was born in 1090 to a French noble family. And if you were born into nobility…
One my absolute favorite titles for St. Joseph is Terror of Demons. It reminds us of his role as the guardian and protector of the Holy Family, how he was entrusted by God to shield Mary and the child Jesus from danger. But it also teaches us a little bit about who St. Joseph was.…
As I was reading this Gospel yesterday in preparation for my homily, I found myself thinking about how bizarre of a reaction this was from Jesus. Here we have this royal official whose son was ill coming to the Lord. In his desperation, he sought Jesus' intervention; he came to Jesus asking for His help.…
This reading from the Book of Daniel is an example of a heartfelt prayer of confession and repentance. It’s a reminder for us of the importance of owning our mistakes before the Lord and seeking His forgiveness. It challenges us to confront our own shortcomings, our own failings and errors with humility and honesty. No…
Every time I hear the Our Father given to us in Scripture and every time I pray it, I always find myself focusing on the part where we are asking the Lord to forgive us our trespasses…as we forgive those who trespass against us. That statement always makes me pause because I know, in my…
Our first reading this morning from the Book of Leviticus is from a section of that particular book of the Bible that has a title of “Various Rules of Conduct.” It’s inviting us to reflect on how we are following the Lord in our daily lives. Are we doing the things that we are called…
In our Gospel Acclamation for this morning, we hear a verse from the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord speaking through him: “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord, but rather in his conversion, that he may live.” The season of Lent is a time for us to reflect on…
This week we continue reading through the First Book of Samuel, how the Lord has appointed him as a prophet and judge for the people of Israel. Today, we see those two roles really coming to the surface in this interaction we see with Saul. Saul has been commanded by the Lord to go and…
Fr. Tom Pringle 