We all know that the burdens in this world are heavy, and it's amazing news that Jesus promises us a light, easy burden. Sometimes it's hard to trust that Jesus' message - such good news - is true; are we afraid to trust him? From the times of the Old Testament, God has called his people out of that fear and into trust. Jesus called to people in his day, and calls to us in ours, 'You can trust me. My yoke is easy, my burden is light.'
Jul 05, 2020•8 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Our country and our world seem to be swimming in fear these days. Fears and anxieties are all around us, demanding our attention and it is in the midst of this noise that Jesus whispers in our hearts: Fear no one. We are called not to be a People of fear but a People of God who live in hope. By trusting in Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, we are able to let God transform our fear into courage and we in turn become the intimate friends and preachers of God. The perfect love of God casts out our fear forev...
Jun 18, 2020•11 min•Season 3Ep. 2
On the Feast of Corpus Christi we are reminded about the manna from Heaven, about the gift we have received in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus will be really present on the altar this Sunday and even if we cannot be there we will long for Him, long for the food that is Jesus. He is the only food that can satisfy us. And it is not just his Body and Blood that he provides. He also gives those who hunger and thirst for righteousness what they long for. Jesus fills our every need, and sati...
Jun 11, 2020•8 min•Season 3Ep. 1
The Holy Spirit gives to each of us gifts, the most powerful of which is God's love for us and the love he has bestowed upon our hearts. But this love and these other gifts are not always apparent. In the Gospel, Jesus simply breathes upon the disciples. A quiet, low-key sign by any measure. Do we recognize the quiet signs even in the midst of our own anxiety and hopelessness? And even if we do see God's gift, are we able and willing to respond? For the daily readings, see the USCCB....
May 31, 2020•8 min
There is a wonderful diversity present within the Dominican Order and within the early disciples. Every evening as we pray the De Profoundis we hear the names of those characters who have gone before. Many of them widely different from one another. As different as Peter and the Beloved Disciple, one a martyr they other who lived a full life on earth. But who each have within them a great love for the Lord. Just as we are called to have. This love for Christ is made manifest in widely different w...
May 30, 2020•4 min
In the Gospel today Peter shows us that to be a Christian leader means constantly accepting the call of Christ to feed and to tend his sheep. At the end of the day, Peter is a leader not because of his own ability, but because he allows Christ to be his guide and to grant him the grace he needs to persevere. The same goes for Paul VI whose feast we celebrate today. Paul VI too offers us a vision of leadership which does not rest on power or on personal ability or accomplishments, but which rests...
May 29, 2020•3 min
Deacon James Martin Nobles, O.P., makes it clear and pulls no punches. Christ calls us to be one people dedicated to him and to each other. But the Church cannot be one, cannot be united, as long as racism remains. Racism is a sin which disrupts the unity and bond of love which binds us to Christ. But racial reconciliation is possible. We cannot merely study racism. we have to work constantly towards reconciling ourselves. In giving away our privilege and power we enable those who are oppressed ...
May 28, 2020•5 min
The time between the Ascension and Pentecost is a strange and in-between time for the Church. We do not yet have the fullness of the Holy Spirit which shall unite us in love as the Body of Christ, but our Lord has already gone ahead of us to Heaven. This in-between time is a time of vulnerability as we prepare our hearts for something new, something burning. For the flame of love which will unite our hearts and make us one, just as Christ and the Father are one. For the daily readings, see the U...
May 27, 2020•5 min
At some point in a leader-follower or teacher-student relationship there comes a point where the student and the follower has to take ownership. That person must in turn become a leader for the sake of their own growth and flourishing. The same goes for our Christian Life. In the Gospel, Jesus prepares to pass the torch to his disciples and, while he will remain united with them in one sense, his human presence will be gone from their midst soon. We are in the same boat and we too have to take o...
May 26, 2020•4 min
Often we fall into what Fr. DePorres Durham, O.P. calls a "dangerous game" of comparisons. We forget the great gifts each one of us has been given. And we especially forget the great gifts showered on us by the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Each of us through our Baptism has been called into the life of the Church and strengthened by grace and the Spirit to participate and live out or calling. The gifts we have been given are of infinite worth already, we don't need to compare or to worry about wha...
May 25, 2020•4 min
When Christ ascended into Heaven he was not distancing himself from humanity, but calling all of us to join him. The Ascension is a call by Christ for us to rise, to climb up to Heaven, and to become divinized ourselves. Each and every human person has a destiny which rests in Heaven, it is our ultimate fulfillment and Christ has himself prepared the way. Take heart, Rev. Br. Adrian McCaffery, O.P. exhorts us. Christ has not abandoned us, not then and certainly not now. Take heart and climb. Cli...
May 24, 2020•8 min
God reassures us, through both Scripture and through the feast we celebrate today, that He is indeed with us. God is not far from anyone and it is his presence which will sustain us. In Acts we see the Lord appearing to Paul and offering him reassurance that God will sustain him during his difficulties. We also see in the person of St. Rita of Cascia who we celebrate, what loving perseverance can do. For years she was married to a terrible and cruel man, but she refused to hate. She trusted in G...
May 22, 2020•5 min
Throughout our daily lives we find ourselves waiting for many things. In fact, waiting seems to be a core aspect of our life here on Earth and yet it is one of the most difficult things we do. What's the point? Rev. Br. James Martin Nobles, O.P., asks us to reorient and to consider not what we are waiting for but rather who . Waiting provides an opportunity to connect with God, to remember God in our waiting and the promises he has made to us. For the daily readings, see the USCCB ....
May 21, 2020•4 min
Paul's missionary work in Athens yielded few results. Only a few truly heard and believed the message he preached. He used both reason and faith with the Athenians and yet it was not enough. Then he went on to Corinth, and it is on this journey that Paul realized that to preach the resurrection without the Crucifixion was to miss the point. The primary goal of Paul's preaching would become preaching Christ and him Crucified. Once he began to do this, he saw the Spirit move many to conversion. Ma...
May 20, 2020•5 min
Jesus makes an outrageous claim to his apostles: that it is better that he should go. This the person who changed their lives forever at his coming and now he says it is better that he should go? That it is somehow better, Rev. Br. James Pierce Cavanaugh, O.P., says, that he should suffer and be crucified. And it is. It is better. Because Jesus has sent to us the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, who empowers and intercedes for us, providing new life to our lives. Christ has not left us alone to suffer...
May 19, 2020•3 min
Often in the history of the church and in the personal lives of Christians there has been persecution. People have taken the good works Christians have done and have mocked them, ridiculed them, and even given ulterior and sinister motives to them. And yet, Christ calls us to do good anyway. Fr. Scott O'Brien, O.P. remind us of the call we have received. It is a call to act for good in the world in the name of Jesus Christ. Christ calls us to do good and the Spirit of Truth, the Advocate whom Ch...
May 18, 2020•3 min
Newly ordained deacon and Rev. Brother Ben Keller, O.P., was ordained on Saturday, and already he is preaching to us the Good News. Rev. Br. Ben Keller asks us to look not at the great struggles and anxieties which are and have been confronting us, but to see the gifts we already have been given. The movement of the Spirit is hard to discern and can be difficult to see, but if we can see these small gifts we will begin to recognize just how much greater than we ever imagined is God's love for us...
May 17, 2020•9 min
On May 16, 2020 Br. James Martin Nobles was ordained to the diaconate. That evening, at a Saturday Vigil Mass for the 6th Sunday of Easter, he was able to assist and to preach as a deacon. Rev. Brother James Martin reminds us of the need for hope. We need to be disciples of hope who rely and trust on God. This hope is not something of our own crafting but something which comes from waiting and preparing for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Are you ready for Hope? For the daily readings, see the US...
May 17, 2020•9 min
Christ has called us, through his own example, into a greater love. This new commandment is the ushering in of a new Messianic Age, an age of the Holy Spirit. We are each called to live and work in this new world. Today is also the feast day of St. Isidore. A farmer and a lay man, Isidore was devoted to prayer and to charity towards his neighbor, often giving them more than he gave himself. He embodied for us this new commandment that Christ has given us, this law of charity. How do we love with...
May 15, 2020•6 min
On the Feast of St. Matthias we are reminded that authority is not something to be sought, but something which is accepted with humility. When we are called to positions of authority we are truly called into service for the Church and for our brothers and sisters. Fr. Michael Mascari, O.P., reminds the brothers that when we speak of our vocations or our discernment process we must be attentive to the voice of Christ and to what he is calling us into. For the daily readings, see the USCCB ....
May 14, 2020•8 min
On a daily basis, how readily do we remember that God is always present to us? Fr. Ed Ruane, O.P. encourages us to always remember that God is always present to us. He encourages us to hear the voice of Jesus, "I remain with you; will you remain with me?" For the daily readings, see the USCCB .
May 13, 2020•3 min•Season 2Ep. 75
A life which is led by the Spirit is not necessarily an easy one. It comes with many bumps, and even with some crashes. The peace of Christ which comes with this life is not the peace of this world. It is not a timeshare in Florida or a large retirement check. It is something more mysterious and more wonderful. For the daily readings, see the USCCB ....
May 12, 2020•4 min
It is easy to love Christ and to follow his commandments when we are focused. But often we find ourselves caught up in distractions both those which are natural and those sent by the Devil to lead us away from Jesus. We are called to discern and to invite the Holy Spirit into our lives so that we can be empowered to focus on Christ even in the midst of distractions and activities. We are called to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and to follow his commandments out of love for that relations...
May 11, 2020•5 min
Each of us is called to bring Christ to others. We see in the first reading from Acts the Commissioning of the first deacons of the church, those like Stephen who would go out, ministering to the needs of the poor, listening to their concerns and anxieties, and who would bring Christ to them. We are each called to be a Christ Bearer likes these early disciples and deacons were. For the daily readings, see the USCCB ....
May 10, 2020•9 min
Each of us is called to love and to perform the works of Christ in a unique and particular way. No one else can fulfill this role for us, only we can do these things to which God is calling us. God is calling you and me into his very self in particular and unique way. How do we respond to this particular task of love? For the daily readings, see the USCCB .
May 09, 2020•3 min
When St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers he based it on the life of the early apostles. He desired to imitate them in zeal and missionary spirit. It is no surprise that Mary, the Queen of Apostles, would shower down blessings upon this Order. In the early Church Mary was there with the Apostles, encouraging them and renewing their spirits. She did it for the early Dominicans appearing to those like Dominic, Jordan of Saxony, Humbert of Romans, Reginald of Orleans and many others. She neve...
May 08, 2020•5 min
"But John left them and returned to Jerusalem." Why did John Mark leave? Was he afraid of the journey, of the danger? We may never know. We do know that Paul and Barnabas will disagree and even fight on whether to bring John Mark with them, we see this in Acts 15. But this is not something meant to discourage us but rather to give us consolation. The saints did not simply descend straight from Heaven and were perfect heroes from beginning to end. They were flawed men and women just like us. We s...
May 07, 2020•4 min
What is perhaps the most defining characteristic of Jesus in the Gospels? Fr. Michael Mascari, O.P. points us to today's Gospel of the answer: intimacy with the Father. Jesus always points to the one who sent him and always orients his will to the Father's Will. That is a relationship which we are all called to enter into as Christians who have been born again in Christ. We too are called to intimacy with the Father. For the daily readings, see the USCCB....
May 06, 2020•4 min
Fr. Ed Ruane, O.P. reminds us who strive to follow the the way of Jesus, that there exists an, "awful long trip," from the head to the heart - from knowing with our minds what we ought to do, and being convicted in our hearts about what we ought to do. And he reminds us of the even longer trip, "from the heart to the feet," - the trip from being convicted in what we ought to do to actually acting as we should. In the midst of this challenging message, we are encouraged that no one can take us ou...
May 05, 2020•5 min•Season 2Ep. 67
To be a pastoral minister is no easy task. The Church in recent years has found herself damaged by the work of pseudo-pastors, fake ministers who instead of drawing the flock of God together, have scattered it. Fr. Mark Wedig, O.P. calls us to be better, drawing is into a portion of Dominican formation, the pastoral year, and asks us to do one thing : to participate in Christ's own identity as the Good Shepherd. For the daily readings, see the USCCB ....
May 04, 2020•4 min
