(Jer.38:4-6,8-10; Ps.40:2-4,14,18; Heb.12:1-4; Lk.12:49-53) “Though I am afflicted and poor, yet the Lord thinks of me.” Persecution is necessarily a part of every Christian’s life. Not many of us will struggle “to the point of shedding blood” as has Jesus, as has Paul, as have all the apostles; and not many of us will be thrown into muddy cisterns as is Jeremiah… but all will remain “afflicted and poor” in their striving against sin and have to endure “opposition from sinners” as they grow in h...
Aug 16, 2025•6 min
(Rv.11:19a,12:1-6a,10ab; Ps.45:10-12,16; 1Cor.15:20-26; Lk.1:39-56) “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” The Queen of Heaven here appears to us in her glory. She who has been taken up by her Son to His heavenly kingdom to stand at His side: “The queen takes her place at your right hand in gold of Ophir.” Yes, Lord, the Mother you preserved from sin for all eternity you have preserved from the ja...
Aug 14, 2025•6 min
(Ws.18:6-9; Ps.33:1,12.18-20,22; Heb.11:1-2,8-19; Lk.12:32-48) “You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” “Our soul waits for the Lord.” Though we do not know the day or the hour of His return, we must always be ready for His coming. As the ancients, the Hebrew fathers and especially Abraham the father of faith himself, we must ever be seeking our heavenly homeland. By faith the ancients, who saw the promise only from afar, “awaited the salvation of ...
Aug 09, 2025•7 min
(Dn.7:9-10,13-14; Ps.97:1-2,5-6,9; 2Pt.1:16-19; Mt.17:1-9 – Mk.9:2-10 – Lk.9:28b-36 Note: since the three gospel accounts vary only in detail, they are treated as one in this one exposition for the day) “I saw one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven.” Daniel’s vision, as John’s vision in the Book of Revelation, is perceived in the flesh by the three apostles on MountTabor, and is known in all our hearts as “the morning star” of faith rises in our hearts. It is the coming of Jesus in...
Aug 05, 2025•6 min
(Ec.1:2,2:21-23; Ps.90:3-6,12-14,17,95:7-8; Col.3:1-5,9-11; Lk.12:13-21) “If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” Yes, “all things are vanity!” without God. All is empty, for “like the changing grass” our life “wilts and fades”; we are turned “back to dust,” and so what becomes of the earthly desires we pursue? Where do “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry” lead us but to the grave – and what do ...
Aug 02, 2025•8 min
(Gn.18:20-32; Ps.138:1-3,6-8; Col.2:12-14; Lk.11:1-13) “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Prayer. Our wonderful gift from God. Our sharing in His will. The Lord ordains that Abraham should speak with Him, and so He stops and waits to hear the prayer of His favored one. And so in this mystical scene from our first reading, we are given a holy model for our own petitions of the Lord. Indeed, first we see that the Lord waits upon us to appr...
Jul 26, 2025•7 min
(2Cor.4:7-15; Ps.126:1-6; Mt.20:20-28) “Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed.” In His apostles the death and resurrection of Jesus are most clearly shown. It is particularly their place to suffer persecution, to be “afflicted” and “crushed”, “constantly being delivered to death for Jesus’ sake”; and it is particularly their grace to show forth the glory of the resurrection. In this selfless service of the Lord, ...
Jul 24, 2025•6 min
(Sg.3:1-4 or 2Cor.5:14-17; Ps.63:2-6,8-9; Jn.20:1-2,11-18) "Whom are you looking for?" Let us stand with Mary Magdalene at the tomb of our risen Lord. Let us weep a little that our hearts might bleed with her same love, and so our eyes be opened to see Jesus standing before us. Let us hear Him call us by name. O let us search night and day for our God, thirsting for Him “like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.” Let us know that without Him we are lost in darkness, empty as the tomb....
Jul 21, 2025•2 min
(Gn.18:1-10a; Ps.15:1-5; Col.1:24-28; Lk.10:38-42) “There is need of only one thing.” Whether we teach or whether we serve, all must be done in the Name of the Lord. If it is not sitting at His feet that we do all things, if all is not a prayer offered in His Name, to His glory, it is all quite worthless. How “anxious and concerned about many things” we often are. How like Martha we often struggle under the burden of our duties without a proper heart for service. And so how often, in the words o...
Jul 19, 2025•6 min
(Dt.30:10-14; Ps.69:14,17,30-31,33-34,36-37 or 19:8-11; Col.1:15-20; Lk.10:25-37) “He lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him.” This “Samaritan traveler… was moved with compassion” upon seeing the poor victim on the road. And so he “poured oil and wine over his wounds” and provided for his healing. Such is the love to which we are called. In our first reading, Moses exhorts us: “Heed the voice of the Lord, your God, and keep His commandments… Return to the Lord, yo...
Jul 12, 2025•6 min
(Is.66:10-14c; Ps.66:1-7,16,20; Gal.6:14-18; Lk.10:1-12,17-20) “The Lord’s power shall be known to His servants.” Paul states: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus instructs: “Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” The bottom line is that “the laborer deserves his payment.” The prosperity of Jerusalem shall flow “like a river” over those who work as laborers in the field of the Word of God: “peace and mercy” shall be to the “Israel of God.” All “who...
Jul 05, 2025•7 min
(Eph.2:19-22; Ps.117:1-2,Mk.16:15; Jn.20:24-29) “Blest are they who have not seen and have believed.” The faith of Thomas. By his faith we find faith. In his desire to know beyond all doubt that the Lord has risen, all our doubt is taken away, and we declare with him, “My Lord and my God!” If Thomas had not doubted so much, we would not believe so much his clear proclamation of the divinity of Jesus. As it is, we no longer have room for doubt. Indeed, Thomas’ ardent need to touch the nail marks ...
Jul 02, 2025•6 min
Acts 12:1-11; Ps.34:2-9; 2Tm.4:6-8,17-18; Mt.16:13-19) “On this rock I will build my Church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail against it.” We go through death to life, for death has no power over us: the power of Jesus founded firmly on Peter, brought forward by Paul, and present in all the members of the Church and in its faith, has conquered death and leads us all to heaven. Today we celebrate the solid foundation of the Church in Peter, the man of faith, first of the apostles and rock ...
Jun 28, 2025•6 min
(Ez.34:11-16; Ps.23:1-6; Rm.5:5-11; Lk.15:3-7) “I have found my lost sheep.” “We have found reconciliation” through the blood of Jesus Christ. So the Apostle Paul tells us, and so we know to the depths of our hearts, which are united to His Sacred Heart. Once we were sinners, scattered like sheep on the hillside, but the Lamb of God has come and died for us, and so we His scattered sheep are led home. He has brought to fulfillment the promise of the Father to walk among us and rescue us from the...
Jun 26, 2025•6 min
(Is.49:1-6; Ps.139:1-3,13-15; Acts 13:22-26: Lk.1:57-66,80) “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” The voice of one crying in the wilderness, he who hails the coming of the Lord, is born today. This voice speaks of the Word among us. And from before his birth he is called, in the womb he is formed, to proclaim with the sword of truth God’s salvation for His people. “Surely the hand of the Lord was with him,” and surely we find the grace of...
Jun 23, 2025•5 min
(Gn.14:18-20; Ps.110:1-4; 1Cor.11:23-26; Lk.9:11b-17) “The Lord Jesus, on the night He was handed over, took bread, and, after He had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you.’” There is food for all, and it is ever available. The Lord feeds us with His own Body and Blood, and He is generous in giving His eternal self to us. Both eternal priest and victim “of God Most High,” and God Himself, we need never fear that His provision for us will lapse. And so we “proclaim the...
Jun 21, 2025•7 min
(Prv.8:22-31; Ps.8:2,4-9; Rm.5:1-5; Jn.16:12-15) “Everything that the Father has is mine.” From the beginning Jesus is with the Father, one with the Father, the pure reflection of His being which cannot be separated from the substance of the Father. Through Him all things were made, and indeed He is reflected in all things. And it is by the power of the Holy Spirit, who takes from what is the Father’s and Son’s, that anything that comes to be comes to be. And man is the crown of the creation of ...
Jun 14, 2025•5 min
(Acts 2:1-11; Ps.104:1,24,29-31,34; Rom.8:8-17; Jn.14:15-16,23b-26) “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” The Spirit of God is with those who keep His commandments; and His Commandment is to love. In such love all become sons of God, all are made one in His Name. (Spirit of Love, anoint us.) In our first reading the oneness of God’s children is emphasized: “They were all in one place together” and “they gathered...
Jun 07, 2025•5 min
(Acts 7:55-60; Ps.97:1-2,6-7,9; Rv.22:12-14,16-17,20; Jn.17:20-26) “I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me.” The Father gave Jesus His glory. It is Jesus’ own glory He owns, for He had it “before the foundation of the world,” but now the Father has given it to Him anew in His incarnation as the Son of Man; and in His death and resurrection He shall not only confirm it in Himself, but serve thus to make it our own. What glory is ours in this S...
May 31, 2025•6 min
(Zeph.3:14-18 or Rom.12:9-16; Is.12:2-6; Lk.1:39-56) “Sing praise to the Lord for His glorious achievement; let this be known throughout all the earth.” How can we capture the joy of this day? For here is the sign of our promised salvation; here we find the first apostolic act in Mary’s bringing the Word of God, so recently conceived in her womb, to Elizabeth, and to her son John the Baptist. “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel!” Zephaniah encourages the holy nation. And for...
May 30, 2025•6 min
(Acts 1:1-11; Ps.47:1-3,6-9; Eph.1:17-23 or Eph.4:1-13 or Heb.9:24-28,10:19-23; Mt.28:16-20 or Mk.16:15-20 or Lk.24:46-53) “God mounts His throne amid shouts of joy; the Lord, amid trumpet blasts.” Three events are the subject of today’s readings. The key of these is certainly the Lord’s ascending into heaven and taking His place at the right hand of the Father. Without this the other two could not follow. And so we celebrate the Lord’s Ascension in particular; but we also hear of the coming Pen...
May 28, 2025•8 min
(Acts 15:1-2,22-29; Ps.67:2-6,8; Rv.21:10-14,22-23; Jn.14:23-29) “The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” And so is “the holy city Jerusalem” protected; and so are its boundaries defined. And so we come to the apostles to find the true teaching of Christ. When “there arose no little dissension and debate” between Paul and Barnabas and certain brothers from Judea who were insisting the Genti...
May 24, 2025•6 min
(Acts 14:21-27; Ps.145:1,8-13; Rv.21:1-5a; Jn.13:31-33a,34-35) “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.” This is the promise on which we set our hearts, this vision of John. This is the word which encourages us to look forward to the coming of our God in the fullness of His presence amongst us. How we long to be His bride in heaven! John indeed sees the “new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,” His holy bride. And his ears hear the promise that “He will wipe away every tear fro...
May 17, 2025•6 min
(Acts 1:15-17,20-26; Ps.113:1-8; Jn.15:9-17) “It was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit.” Since “the saying in Scripture uttered long ago by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David was destined to be fulfilled in Judas” and he “went the way he was destined to go,” now the word of the Lord must be accomplished: “May another take his office.” And though “Peter stood up in the center of the brothers” and declared the need expressed in Scripture, and though the one hundred and twenty brot...
May 13, 2025•6 min
(Acts 13:14,43-52; Ps.100:1-3,5; Rv.7:9,14b-17; Jn.10:27-30) “The Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water.” Joy is our promise in the Lord, brothers and sisters. Absolute, eternal, universal joy. And though we may suffer persecution now, “the time of great distress” upon us but provides the means, the water, by which all saints “have washed their robes and made them white.” “The blood of the Lamb” is necessary to bring us to the ki...
May 10, 2025•6 min
(Acts 5:27-32,40b-41; Ps.30:2,4-6,11-13; Rv.5:11-14; Jn.21:1-19) “You changed my mourning into dancing.” Throughout our readings today we witness the glory the risen Lord effects by His sacrifice, the change of fate that comes by the Savior. In our first reading, though the apostles are brought before the Sanhedrin for persecution, they leave their presence rejoicing, happy to have “suffer[ed] dishonor for the sake of the name.” In our psalm David sings the praise of the Lord for His having brou...
May 03, 2025•5 min
(1Cor.15:1-8; Ps.19:2-5; Jn.14:6-14) “The man who has faith in me will do the works I do.” What is the message the apostles preach “to the ends of the world”? What is “the glory of God” that “the heavens declare” and “the firmament proclaims”? It is none other than Jesus’ words to Thomas: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me”; it is His answer to Philip: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” The Father “lives in [Jesus] accomplishing His w...
May 02, 2025•4 min
(Acts 5:12-16; Ps.118:1-4,22-27; Rv.1:9-13,17-19; Jn.20:19-31) “When I caught sight of Him, I fell down at His feet as though dead.” But Jesus “touched [John] with His right hand and said, ‘Do not be afraid.’” Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” as he humbled himself at the sight of the risen Christ who had appeared before him, and so he was blessed with faith. The first believers “carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his s...
Apr 26, 2025•6 min
(Acts 10:34a,37-43; Ps.118:1-2,16-17,22-24; Col.3:1-4 or 1Cor.5:6b-8; Jn.20:1-9 or Lk.24:13-35) “Everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins through His name.” “His mercy endures forever,” brothers and sisters, and it is for us to “declare the works of the Lord”: that Jesus was “raised on the third day,” that He lives, that He still is “healing all those oppressed by the devil.” With Peter and the apostles we must “preach to the people and testify” that “the right hand of the L...
Apr 19, 2025•6 min
(Gn.1:1-2:2; Ps.104:1-2,5-6,10,12-14,24,35 or Ps.33:4-7,12-13,20-22; Gn.22:1-18; Ps.16:5,8-11; Ex.14:15-15:1; Ex.15:1-6,17-18; Is.54:5-14; Ps.30:2,4-6,11-13; Is.55:1-11; Is.12:2-6; Bar.3:9-15,32-4:4; Ps.19:8-11; Ez.36:16-17a,18-28; Ps.42:3,5,43:3,4; Rom.6:3-11; Ps.118:1-2,16-17,22-23; Mt.28:1-10 or Mk.16:1-7 or Lk.24:1-12) “He is not here.” The women come faithfully to the tomb early Easter morning. What do they find but that the stone is rolled back from its gaping mouth; and angel(s) in white ...
Apr 18, 2025•6 min
