“You cannot serve both God and mammon.”  We all know who God is and how we are to serve him: by loving him and our neighbor.  But, what does it mean to serve mammon?  We first have to understand what mammon is.  If you look it up in the dictionary, you will see that it is simply riches or material wealth.  There is nothing wrong with material possessions.  But, striving for wealth above serving God leads us to the position where we hear Amos condemn some of his wealthy countrymen […]

THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS

You may wonder why we’re celebrating this feast – the Exaltation of the Holy Cross – on a Sunday in the middle of September.  Since it falls on a Sunday only every so many years – the last time was in 2014 – you may have forgotten that this is an ancient feast day, marking the discovery of the True Cross by St. Helena and the dedication of the basilica that Emperor Constantine, her son, built in Jerusalem over the spot of our Lord’s crucifixion.  […]

You’re all familiar with Psalm 23, I’m sure.  It starts out with “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.  In green pastures he makes me repose; he refreshes my soul.”  How comforting those words are.

They are a far cry from the words we hear in today’s Gospel, aren’t they?  Here, we hear Jesus declare: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  That sounds really harsh, doesn’t […]

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

 31 August 2025

Those who know me know that one of my favorite forms of entertainment is getting together for dinner with my family or a few friends at someone’s home or at a fine restaurant.  My sister knows this well so when we got together for vacation last week in Myrtle Beach she took me out to Greg Norman’s Australian Grille.  One of their specials was one of my favorite meats:  venison.  And, it wasn’t a venison steak but a venison chop.  It was prepared in […]