First Sunday of Lent
As if the coronavirus pandemic isn’t enough of a worldwide crisis, now we’re struggling with extreme temperature swings and ongoing storms not only here but in unusual spots around the world. Did you see the photograph of the Pantheon in Athens covered with snow? It’s such an unusual event that the place has been packed not with tourists but locals coming to take a look. And, on the other hand, there was recently a tragedy in India where dozens of people lost their lives due to flooding caused by heavy […]
Ash Wednesday
“I just can’t wait until we get back to normal, whatever that is!” That’s one of the refrains we have all heard so often over this past year as we continue to struggle through this coronavirus pandemic. We also hear comments about a new normal, where things will be different but we’ll get used to it. Wearing masks, bumping elbows rather than shaking hands, keeping a safe distance may all become the new normal and we’ll just have to adjust. It makes me think of the new normal that we […]
SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Fortunately, Hansen’s Disease – the medical name for leprosy – is almost a thing of the past. There are currently only about half a million known cases of the disease worldwide. But, we are still struggling to control other infectious diseases, such as the common cold, the flu, HIV and now, COVID-19; it’s caught all of us in its grip, hasn’t it!?! And so, we can identify with today’s readings. Just as the people in ancient Israel didn’t understand leprosy, what caused it and how it was spread, so we […]
LENT BEGINS IN THE MIDST OF THE PANDEMIC
Although we continue to be in the grip of winter, Lent begins on Wednesday and, like almost everything else this year, Ash Wednesday will be a little different. Following Archdiocesan guidelines, ashes will be sprinkled in silence on your head rather than being imposed on your foreheads in the sign of a cross. This is already the practice in much of the world; it follows the example we see throughout the Bible (cf. Jdt. 4:11; Est. 4:16; 1 Mc. 3:47) and avoids the physical contact that many people fear during […]
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We don’t often hear from the Book of Job at Sunday Mass. In fact, we only hear from it twice in the three-year reading cycle, and only in Year B, as we are in this year. Today’s reading is a good reason why we don’t – it’s really rather depressing, isn’t it? We hear Job complain: “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery? …So I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted me.” Not very good news, is it? I don’t know about you, […]