Following the Mass yesterday at Holy Hill, I was asked to share the text for my homily based on the appearance of risen Christ to St. Thomas. A bit was said impromptu but I'm posting what I had prepared before me... and I've provided something of a "more finished" end... What do our Scriptures tell [...]
The Lord is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia! Brothers and sisters, there is NO love like the love of God in Jesus Christ. God is PASSIONATE for the man and the woman He created—He is passionate for each and every one of you and me. He is passionate enough to accept being truly immersed [...]
On this Thanksgiving Day, we remember the countless blessings of Almighty God. Simply our grateful remembrance of God is transformative and inclines us to become more and more vessels of Divine Charity, other "humanities" (as Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity would say) wherein Christ can live His Paschal Mystery. From the Soliloquies of St. Teresa [...]
St. Teresa of Jesus, foundress and reformer I am in Brighton, MA for a gathering of the Plenary Provincial Council, which is a consultative body composed of the provincial, his council, the superiors of all our monasteries, and elected delegates from the various communities. Today, for the Feast of All Carmelite Saints, Fr. [...]
Notes on a Divine Mercy Sunday Homily Today is a glorious day in the Church—it is the final day of the Easter Octave, the great celebration of the Resurrection, it is the feast of Divine Mercy… Our Gospel today is SO rich. It speaks to the depth of the human heart. Poor Thomas… He wasn’t [...]
The Resurrection of Our Lord The oldest known version of the Gospel of Mark ends simply with the women finding an EMPTY TOMB. In this oldest form, there is no appearance of the Risen Jesus. Only the empty tomb. Mark has told the whole of the story of the life and death of [...]
From a homily given at Holy Hill on the 5th Sunday of Lent. This season of Lent is something of a school that educates and prepares our hearts to celebrate the great mysteries of our salvation—the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, Son of God and our Savior. Each Sunday of Lent is another LESSON [...]
Ah... my poor abandoned blog! I last posted during my travels at World Youth Day ... and with good intentions of blogging the whole trip. But my plans were soon dashed when wi-fi could not be found! ...Anyhow, we begin ANEW again and again. This is the gist of the spiritual life, isn't it? Yesterday's [...]
I went to the baths at Lourdes this afternoon and washed in the waters of Bernadette's spring. It was the third time I have done so in four visits to Lourdes. And each time it is powerfully emotional for me. Hundreds of human beings from all over the world standing in line to enter the [...]
"WHATEVER DID NOT fit in with my plan did fit within the plan of God. I have an ever deeper and firmer belief that nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God, that my whole life down to the smallest details has been marked out for me in the plan of [...]