From the Friars: O Come, O Come Emmanuel! In his Gospel, St. Matthew is careful to show how the birth and life of Jesus fulfill the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. In the reading for today he quotes the famous prophesy of Isaiah 7:14, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and…
From the Friars: The Question of St. John the Baptist In today’s Gospel we hear how St. John The Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” (Mt 11:3) This seems hard to reconcile with the clear certitude of the man who…
From the Friars: The Coming Wrath In today’s gospel we hear the fiery words of St. John the Baptist warning of “the coming wrath.” Fire and brimstone type preaching is not popular these days. There is a far greater emphasis on God’s Mercy and readiness to forgive. It is first of all important to recognize…
From the Friars: Happy New Year and Happy Anniversary! Today is the First Sunday of Advent. On this day, we begin a new Liturgical Year in the Catholic Church. So, in some sense, we can say, “Happy New Year!” The designation of this year is A-1. This designation is based on the cycle of Mass…
From the Friars: Viva Cristo Rey! Today on this Solemnity of Christ the King, we hear the story of the good thief. The faith of this man is quite extraordinary. For all appearances Jesus’ life was a complete failure. The supposed great prophet, who many thought was the long-awaited Messiah that would deliver God’s people…
From the Friars: Words of Warning As we come to the end of the liturgical year, and the beginning of Advent, we hear much about the Last Things in the readings at Mass. Today Jesus speaks of terrifying events to come and of great persecution that will come upon the Church. Church Teaching and the…
From the Friars: Faithful Unto Death Today in the first reading we hear the story of the heroic seven brothers and their mother who all died as martyrs rather than violate the Law of God. This happened during the reign of the Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Greek king who ruled over Israel in the second…
The following is a quote from The U.S. Bishop’s Reflection on Catholic Teaching and Political Life: 17. The Church equips its members to address political and social questions by helping them to develop a well-formed conscience. Catholics have a serious and lifelong obligation to form their consciences in accord with human reason and the teaching…
From the Friars: Francis: Lover of Chastity Some people believe that we Franciscans should relax our life of penance. “You Franciscans do not eat very well.” “You should accept more help from the faithful.” While I appreciate these concerns and what concerns me is a loss of balance between generosity to others and a fiery…
From the Friars: The Leaven of the Pharisees Today in the Gospel we hear once again the story of the pharisee and the tax collector. We could imagine a similar scenario with a different pharisee and a different tax collector. This time the tax collector prays: “Thank you God that I am not like this…