(2Cor.1:18-22; Ps.119:129-133,135; Mt.5:13-16) “God is the one who firmly establishes us.” “Light of the world” and “salt of the earth” – this is what we are by the power of God. It is by Him we are “set on a hill” to give “light to all in the house”; it is we who preserve the integrity of creation. It is a holy call and a demanding one, and we should not waver in our resolve to follow the Lord and fulfill His work and His will; for it is indeed His will that we show His goodness before the eyes...
Jun 09, 2025•5 min
(2Cor.1:1-7; Ps.34:2-9; Mt.5:1-12) “Blessed are those persecuted for holiness’ sake; the reign of God is theirs.” Here is the core teaching of our faith. Here are the beatitudes, the call to sweet humility which flows like blessed honey from the lips of our Savior. And that teaching is that the humbled shall be exalted, that those who mourn and sorrow for the lack of love we find in this tainted world and who strive to bring that love to the hard heart of man shall be blessed, are blessed, for t...
Jun 08, 2025•5 min
(Acts 28:16-20,30-31; Ps.11:4-5,7; Jn.21:20-25) “I wear these chains solely because I share the hope of Israel.” The hope of Israel indeed wears chains. The Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the nation, is fixed to a cross. This is the call of all who follow Jesus – to die. But, Peter is prompted to ask as he walks with Jesus and the Lord explicates his dual call to serve as leader of the Church and to die for his faith, “What about him?” What about John, who follows them? The question pert...
Jun 06, 2025•6 min
(Acts 25:13-21; Ps.103:1-2,11-12,19-20; Jn.21:15-19) “When you are older you will stretch out your hands, and another will tie you fast and carry you off against your will.” And so the Lord “indicate[s] the sort of death by which Peter was to glorify God.” And by his laying down of his life, this leader of the apostles shall indeed feed the Lord’s sheep. After “they had eaten their meal,” when there was nothing to distract them – as the apostles gazed at the wonder of the risen Christ before the...
Jun 05, 2025•6 min
(Acts 22:30,23:6-11; Ps.16:1-2,5,7-11; Jn.17:20-26) “I set the Lord ever before me; with Him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.” Yes, “the Lord appeared at Paul’s side” at night, in prison, after his testimony and the near riot it caused in Jerusalem. He comes to encourage him, to strengthen him for further trials; and through all Paul shall remain strong. “Keep me, O God, for in you, I take refuge,” David prays, and sings of the confidence his heart and soul find in the Lord, his “allot...
Jun 04, 2025•5 min
(Acts 20:28-38; Ps.68:29-30,33-36; Jn.17:11-19) “O Father most holy, protect them with the name you have given me.” In our gospel today Jesus prays to the Father, “who rides on the heights of the ancient heavens,” to “guard [His disciples] from the evil one.” And the parallels continue between His and Paul’s parting words, as the Apostle warns his own disciples, “When I am gone, savage wolves will come among you who will not spare the flock,” and therefore exhorts them to “be on guard.” It is th...
Jun 03, 2025•5 min
(Acts 20:17-27; Ps.68:10-11,20-21,33; Jn.17:1-11) “Father, the hour has come! Give glory to your Son that your Son may give glory to you.” A day of departures. A day of final words and commendations. Paul bids farewell to the leaders of Ephesus, declaring his faithfulness to them; and Jesus prays to the Father in the hearing of the disciples, calling the Lord’s blessing upon them. “The Holy Spirit has been warning me from city to city that chains and hardships await me,” Paul confesses as he mak...
Jun 02, 2025•5 min
(Acts 19:1-8; Ps.68:2-7,33; Jn.16:29-33) “You will suffer in the world. But take courage! I have overcome the world.” “An hour is coming – has indeed already come – when you will be scattered and each will go his way, leaving me quite alone.” Yet the Father is always with Jesus, even as He faces His imminent execution, and Jesus is with us by the power of the Spirit through all the trials we face. “In me you may find peace,” the Lord assures us, bearing out the words of David’s psalm: “The fathe...
Jun 01, 2025•5 min
(Acts 18:9-18; Ps.47:2-8; Jn.16:20-23) “Go on speaking and do not be silenced, for I am with you.” As Paul continues his missionary journey, his fears are calmed by the Lord, who assures him: “No one will attack you or harm you,” though he be in Corinth, whose infamous immorality is illustrated in the riotous behavior of the Jews in its court, and to which the court “paid no attention at all.” And the Lord is true to His word, protecting Paul throughout his year-and-a-half stay, and keeping him ...
May 29, 2025•5 min
(Acts 17:15,22-18:1; Ps.148:1-2,11-14,Is.6:3; Jn.16:12-15) “It is He ‘who gives’ to all life and ‘breath’ and everything else.” “His majesty is above earth and heaven,” brothers and sisters. And so our psalmist today encourages all in the heavens and all on earth to “praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted.” “From one stock He made every nation of mankind to dwell on the face of the earth,” and it is “in Him we live and move and have our being.” And so should we, “His faithful...
May 27, 2025•5 min
(Acts 16:22-34; Ps.138:1-3,7-8; Jn.16:5-11) “Immediately all the doors flew open and everyone’s chains were pulled loose.” “Your right hand saves me,” David sings unto the Lord this day in our psalm. Mighty indeed is His power, and so we should “worship at [His] holy temple, and give thanks to [His] name,” for He has “built up strength within [us]”; by the power of the Holy Spirit He has set us free from our prisons, from the chains of sin. “When I called you, you answered me,” David sings. And ...
May 26, 2025•5 min
(Acts 16:11-15; Ps.149:1-6,9; Jn.15:26-16:4) “You must bear witness.” The Spirit will come and call to your hearts to speak of the name of Jesus and His salvation. As He prompts you, you must speak the truth in love, you must go as He calls – you must bear witness. And sometimes the word you speak, and you yourself, will be accepted with the faith and great hospitality as known in Lydia (who is said to be “one who listened,” for “the Lord opened her heart to accept what Paul was saying,” and who...
May 25, 2025•5 min
(Acts 16:1-10; Ps.100:1-3,5; Jn.15:18-21) “I chose you out of the world.” What is the world but heartache and sin; from this the Lord would release us. Jesus tells His disciples: “You do not belong to the world,” and yet, as is most evident in the journeys of Paul, to all the world do the apostles go. The Master tells them, “You [will] find that the world hates you”; even so, they preach to a world which has no respect for the name they proclaim, who “know nothing of Him who sent” them. The inev...
May 23, 2025•5 min
(Acts 15:22-31; Ps.57:8-12; Jn.15:12-17) “There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Do not Judas and Silas fulfill the Lord’s command to “love one another”; do not they lay down their lives for the Lord when they bring word “to the brothers of Gentile origin in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia” of the apostles’ decision regarding those who have “upset [them] with their discussions and disturbed [their] peace of mind”? Do they not carry the love of the Lord in thei...
May 22, 2025•5 min
(Acts 15:7-21; Ps.96:1-3,10; Jn.15:9-11) “We are saved by the favor of the Lord Jesus.” We are told of the Council of Jerusalem, convened to determine if the Gentiles need be subject to circumcision and the Mosaic Law, “After much discussion, Peter took the floor,” and that after he had finished speaking, “the whole assembly fell silent.” What is there to say after the Rock of the Church has spoken? And how marvelously his declaration mirrors Jesus’ own simple command to His disciples, “Live on ...
May 21, 2025•5 min
(Acts 15:1-6; Ps.122:1-5; Jn.15:1-8) “I am the vine, you are the branches.” And within Him we must remain; nurtured by the Church He has planted we must always be. We must have His blood flowing in our veins and His Word inspiring our souls. There can be no separation from Him and from His teaching if we are to bear fruit abundantly, as is the Father’s desire. Paul and Barnabas bear fruit abundantly. As “the church saw them off… they made their way through Phoenicia and Samaria, telling everyone...
May 20, 2025•6 min
(Acts 14:19-28; Ps.145:10-13,21; Jn.14:27-31) “We must undergo many trials if we are to enter into the reign of God.” “With this instruction” Paul and Barnabas “gave their disciples reassurances, and encouraged them to persevere in the faith.” Their apostolic journey has been a witness that the road to the Lord is wrought with difficulties, but that it bears great fruit. These apostles are pursued from towns in which they have preached by those who would destroy them and their word. Paul is ston...
May 19, 2025•6 min
(Acts 14:5-18; Ps.115:1-4,15-16; Jn.14:21-26) “May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” “Anyone who loves me will be true to my word, and my Father will love him; we will come to him and make our dwelling place with him.” Thus are we blessed, by keeping the word of the Lord. Thus we know His love, for thus we accept the love He offers by His instruction and by His presence. It is this blessing of “the living God, ‘the one who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is i...
May 18, 2025•5 min
(Acts 13:44-52; Ps.98:1-4; Jn.14:7-14) “I have made you a light to the nations, a means of salvation to the ends of the earth.” In the preaching of Paul today is fulfilled the words of our psalm, “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God.” Rejected by the Jews to whom he comes, he “now turn[s] to the Gentiles,” and – fulfilling the words of our psalm which read, “Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands, break into song; sing praise” – our first reading tells us “the Gentiles...
May 16, 2025•6 min
(Acts 13:26-33; Ps.2:6-11; Jn.14:1-6) “You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.” This same verse appearing in both our first reading and our psalm is spoken also by Jesus in our gospel when He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me,” for such is the Son begotten of the Father. How comforting are Jesus’ words in our gospel, and how enlightening Paul’s speech. The disciples’ hearts are troubled at the Lord’s speaking of His imminent departu...
May 15, 2025•5 min
(Acts 13:13-35; Ps.89:2-3,21-22,25,27; Jn.13:16-20) “He who accepts anyone I send accepts me, and in accepting me accepts Him who sent me.” And who is this Jesus who sends apostles like Paul forth traveling from Syria to Cyprus to Asia Minor? Who is He of whom Paul rises to speak in this distant synagogue? Two quotes I offer for your consideration. First is the Baptist’s declaration, “I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of His sandals”(Lk.3:16). The second is the mere statement of fact that He ...
May 14, 2025•5 min
(Acts 11:19-26; Ps.87:1-7,117:1; Jn.10:22-30) “Of Zion they shall say: ‘One and all were born in her.’” “I tell of Egypt and Babylon among those that know the Lord; of Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia,” sings our psalmist today. Yes, “when the peoples are enrolled” in the kingdom of heaven, when it is noted: “This man was born there,” it shall not be to the soil of Jerusalem to which the angels refer, but to birth in the spirit of the place, in the Holy Spirit Himself, who leads all into the New Jerusa...
May 12, 2025•6 min
(Acts 11:1-18; Ps.41:3,42:2-3,43:3-4; Jn.10:1-10 or Jn.10:11-18) “God has granted life-giving repentance even to the Gentiles.” In his vision Peter sees “an object like a big canvas… lowered down to [him] from the sky by its four corners.” Upon it he discerns “four-legged creatures of the earth, wild beasts and reptiles, and birds of the sky.” Like Noah’s ark it seems to contain all the animals upon it. But these animals he sees are not for the good Jew to eat: they are unclean. And so Peter pro...
May 11, 2025•5 min
(Acts 9:31-42; Ps.116:12-17; Jn.6:60-69) “We have come to believe.” Yes, Peter professes for the Twelve (except Judas, of course), “We are convinced that you are God’s holy one.” They have heard His words and seen His works, and despite the difficulty of this latest and most challenging of words – that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood – their faith is not shaken as is that of so many others, as is the faith of so many even today regarding the same teaching. Peter declares, “You have t...
May 11, 2025•6 min
(Acts 9:1-20; Ps.117:1-2,Mk.16:15; Jn.6:52-59) “My flesh is real food and my blood real drink.” And “the man who feeds on this bread shall live forever.” The truth is simply stated to those who wonder at His words today in our gospel. As the Israelites in the desert asked, “What is this?” when presented with manna as their food, so now the Jews say, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” For those who do not believe, it is impossible; but for those who believe, it is the gift of God. Here ...
May 08, 2025•5 min
(Acts 8:26-40; Ps.66:1,8-9,16-17,20; Jn.6:44-51) “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” How evident it is in our first reading that the Father draws all believers unto Himself. For though it is clear that the Ethiopian eunuch is in search of God, has a desire for God, and welcomes God – He is coming from pilgrimage to Jerusalem, is reading Holy Scripture, and “invite[s] Philip to get in and sit down beside him” – which is necessary for belief as well, it is most certain...
May 07, 2025•5 min
(Acts 8:1-8; Ps.66:1-7; Jn.6:35-40) “Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you, sing praise to your name!” And why should there be such exultant joy among all the peoples of the earth? What should cause all men to “shout joyfully to God”? It is Jesus’ profession that “everyone who looks upon the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life.” Nothing but life everlasting can bring such absolute joy, and we have the assurance from the Lord’s own lips that He “shall lose nothing of what [t...
May 06, 2025•5 min
(Acts 7:51-8:1; Ps.31:3-4,6-8,17,21; Jn.6:30-35) “No one who comes to me shall ever be hungry, no one who believes in me shall thirst again.” “I myself am the bread of life,” Jesus declares, and it is in this Bread we take refuge. It is by this Bread we are fed. Do you think that Stephen is at all hungry as he lives again the trial, way of the cross, and crucifixion of the Lord in our first reading today? No, even in this time, and perhaps especially in this sacrifice, the Lord feeds him with Br...
May 05, 2025•6 min
(Acts 6:8-15; Ps.119:1,23-24,26-27,29-30; Jn.6:22-29) “This is the work of God: have faith in the One whom He sent.” It is this faith that moves Stephen; it is this work upon which he sets his heart. And so he was unmoved when “the people, the elders, and the scribes… confronted him, seized him, and led him off to the Sanhedrin” and “brought in false witnesses” against him. Surely the words of our psalm are fulfilled in him as they had been in the Lord: “Though princes meet and talk against me, ...
May 04, 2025•4 min
(Acts 5:34-42; Ps.27:1,4,13-14; Jn.6:1-15) “I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living.” Seeing the vast crowd following Him up the mountain as He seeks to sit with His disciples, Jesus asks the one without guile, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat.” In honesty Philip answers, essentially, “It is impossible.” Ah, but nothing is impossible with God. Brothers, is it not their seeing “the bounty of the Lord” that causes the apostles to leave the Sanhe...
May 01, 2025•5 min
