Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
In the Gospel today Jesus offers us three more parables - the wheat and weeds, the mustard seed, the yeast. Each of these has a unique lesson for us and, in the wonderful way of parables, new insight may be gained each time we return to their wisdom.
In the first parable, Je ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today both the Gospel and first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah teach us about the word of God. From Isaiah we hear that God’s word is expansive. He offers the beautiful image of the word coming down from heaven as rain or snow, with enough strength to nourish the whole ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
After several weeks of hearing about the difficulties we can expect from a life of discipleship, Jesus has welcome words of comfort and consolation in today’s Gospel. Jesus welcomes all who are tired, overwhelmed, and overloaded to come to find a unique kind of rest in Him. We are ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Jesus begins today’s Gospel passage with a startling statement. Jesus was a master of hyperbole and used shocking, or at least initially shocking, statements to get the attention of His followers and invite them to really hear, and then explore, His teachings. Jesus came to revolut ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today in the Gospel, Jesus encourages His disciples to be fearless. In the previous passage He revealed to them that their mission of evangelization will come with some daunting consequences. They may be maligned, disregarded, attacked, and perhaps even killed. But even in the face o ...
Dear Friends in Christ,
I was completely bowled over by the love and affection shown me on the occasion of my 70th birthday and 45th ordination anniversary. I take this opportunity to thank each of you who attended the parish barbecue and presented me with the amazing gift of a trip to the Holy Land. It’s a dr ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Last week we celebrated a great mystery of our faith, the Holy Trinity. In our exploration of this unfathomable truth, we found at its foundation immense, unmeasurable love. The feast we celebrate today, the Body and Blood of Christ, is equally mysterious and likewise rooted in the s ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, one of the most inspiring stories of our faith. It is inspiring not only because of the remarkable transformation of the apostles, but also because God demonstrates, yet again, that God is willing to bridge any distance between His bel ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today’s Gospel is the very conclusion of the evangelist Matthew’s writing. At the beginning of his Gospel, while telling the story of Jesus’ birth, Matthew named Him as “Emmanuel, God with us.” (Matthew 1:28) At the end of his Gospel Jesus repeats this promise to “be with ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
In my Easter homily I spoke about HOPE, Holy Optimism Pervading Everything. This is how God looks at the world, and indeed at each of us. Applying this lens to our own world view is both liberating and empowering, bringing us closer to our loving God, and making us better able to do ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
The beginning of this weekend’s Gospel is a popular choice for a funeral Mass, with its beautiful imagery of Jesus preparing a place for each of us in His Father’s house. The disciples still have questions, and honestly, who wouldn’t?!. They don’t know where Jesus is going, s ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today we find in the Gospel the familiar and beloved image of Christ as our Shepherd, calling His flock by name, protecting them from danger and guarding them from thieves and robbers. We sing the famous Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, a frequent companion in difficulty with its r ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Just as we have the familiar post-Christmas story of the Magi’s visit to the Christ Child, we hear today the story of the journey to Emmaus- a beloved and familiar post-Resurrection story.
Both are significant because they offer ideas of how disciples through the generations ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
In my Easter homily I quoted some lyrics from the song Anthem by Leonard Cohen, “Ring the bells that still can ring/ Forget your perfect offering/ There is a crack, a crack in everything/ That's how the light gets in.” I think these powerful words have relevance to today’s Gosp ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today is the only day in our liturgical year when we hear two Gospel readings. We begin with Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem to shouts of “King” and “Son of David.” We end with Jesus on the cross, mocked by the very same crowd. Praise and vilification, joy and desp ...
