By Reverend Katherine Elsner I must say that I love this reading from Mattew with Jesus’ question: Who Do You Say That I AM? It’s such a direct question where Jesus goes straight to the heart of what he wants to know. However, first let’s see what was going on in the Hebrew scripture reading […]

By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman A few weeks ago, I went to the theater to see Christopher Nolan’s latest feature film, ‘The Odyssey’. A retelling of the ancient Greek story of King Odysseus and the struggles he faced on his twenty-year adventure. The Odyssey, the original by Homer, not the movie, is considered one of

By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman “Why do you speak to them in parables?” In Matthew’s Gospel today, we hear the apostles ask this question of Jesus. There are 55 parables attributed to Jesus in the synoptic Gospels; Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Interestingly, there are none found in John. This parable of the sower is the

By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman Welcome to the solemnity of Corpus Christ, or for those of us who don’t speak Latin, the Body of Christ. Words matter, don’t they? And our Catholic traditions use a lot of words. Some might say too many! Some of those words come from the earliest writings of our history,

By Reverend Katherine Elsner I can’t imagine how alone, fearful and insecure the disciples of Jesus must have felt when they finally figured out that they had been called by Jesus to go forward with his teachings. Looking back, they remembered that Peter denied Jesus, that none of them had been at the foot of

By Michael Armstrong Before I get started, you’ll need to know a little bit about me. I’ve been a diabetic for 62 years, and invariably I have candy around me. You’ll see me, even at church, say, “Oh, my blood sugar is getting down a little bit,” and I’ll grab some candy. I’ll tell you

by Bishop Mary Keldermans At first glance, the readings we have just heard don’t look like they fit together, much less for a Holy Covenant ritual that we will celebrate in a moment. The first reading is from the Acts of the Apostles and describes how the early Christians were building the Church. The Psalm

By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman In today’s first reading, we hear Peter proclaiming the Good News to the people in Jerusalem right after they received the Holy Spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost. That’s right, the Jewish feast of Pentecost. It was called Shavuot (shuh·voo·awt), and it was celebrated seven weeks or fifty days

By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman Today’s readings and our journal assignment, all have something to do with one of the five senses, sight. In the first reading, from Samuel, we are told in no uncertain terms that God sees differently than we see. While some of us would choose the eldest, or the tallest, or

By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman From the beginning of today’s first reading, we are told to seek various ways of being. This prophet, Zephaniah, from Hebrew Scripture, is telling us to be God-seeking people, righteous people, humble people, lowly people, upright people, honest people, people who seek refuge. For these are some of the goals