With our celebration of the First Week of Advent we enter into a new liturgical year. We can wish each other Happy New Year and be correct in doing so.  Would it  surprise you to know that the Church hasn’t always celebrated Advent with three purple candles and one rose colored candle? Or that She […]

by Bishop Mary Keldermans What do you think of when you think of the season of Lent? Gloom? No meat? Giving up candy, soda or ice cream? Crowns of thorns? Stations of the Cross?  Lent used to be that way for me until I started to teach our Catholic Faith to folks who wanted to

Story of Jesus & Disciples on the road to Emmaus Last week we heard two stories of Jesus’ presence after the resurrection. One was that Jesus appeared to the disciples who were gathered and hiding in a locked room. In the second story Jesus appeared when Thomas was with the other gathered disciples. Today’s gospel

The Beatitudes from Matthew 5 Today Barb read section from the gospel of Matthew, called Beatitudes, found in The Sermon on the Mount, probably one of the most well known texts of the New Testament. Matthew places them near the beginning of his account of Jesus’ public ministry, though we don’t know if they actually

Luke 20:27-38 In today’s gospel we find a group of religious leaders back in the day known as Sadducees, who did not believe in resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees propose a trick question to Jesus, trying to discredit him. The trick question asked about a law from Moses’ time found in the Torah that

A lawyer stood before Jesus to put him to the test and said,“Teacher, what must I do to inherit everlasting life?” Jesus answered,“What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” The expert on the Law replied:“You must love the Most High Godwith all your heart,with all your soul,with all your strengthand with

Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-a-bridge-movie-screening-and-panel-discussion-tickets-340451970007

Prodigal Son Reflection When I first started teaching in 1955, our pastor was a bit of tyrant and he demanded that every student in the school of about 800 students, learn the three laws of memory and be ready to recite them when he asked…this was kindergarten to 8th grade. In case you have forgotten

Samaritan Woman at the Well Who is God? What is God like? How do we describe God? Does God change? Today’s readings challenge our concepts of God. With all that we have read and prayed and studied over our lifetimes, today might be an appropriate day to challenge how we think about God. First and

Lent rolls around every year, but for most Christians, it is less like a birthday and more like a flu vaccination. We know Lent is necessary, that it’s good for us in much the same way vegetables might be. We’ve heard all the preachers’ clichés as to how it makes the joy of Easter possible,