Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
There is a saying, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” This is certainly true of the cast of characters in today’s Gospel. Jesus is able to heal the man born blind. It is a harder matter with those who are willfully blind (the Pharisees), fearfully blind (the ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
As we began the Lenten season I shared that our theme this Lent is “Thirsting for you, O God,” and each week we have been singing “As the Deer Longs For Water,” to remind us of the essential nature of God’s presence in our lives. In the readings this Sunday, we encounter th ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
I hope and pray that you and your loved ones are well.
Throughout my high school years, I proudly wore a black blazer with the school crest on its breast pocket. The school motto read: Virtus in Arduis or Strength in Difficulties. Those three words were my introduction to the ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
We are entering the time in our Church year when we prepare our hearts and our minds to journey with Jesus through His Passion, His Death, and ultimately to the glory of His Resurrection. Jesus Himself underwent such a period of preparation before He began His earthly ministry, tra ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
As we approach the Lenten season, Jesus has some difficult commands for us in today’s Gospel. We are to love our enemies, offer no retaliation for mistreatment, give freely to those who may not deserve or reciprocate our generosity, all in imitation of the perfection of God’s l ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Often in our Lectionary the first reading from the Hebrew Scriptures helps prepare us to better understand the Gospel reading. This is particularly true of today’s readings. Jesus Himself would be have been completely and intimately familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures. Indeed, as J ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today in the Gospel Jesus tells us “you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” Salt and light were elements crucial to society in Jesus’ day, and are just as important today. We need look no further back than our recent widespread power outages to recognize our ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
At Sunday Masses we prayed for the victims and families involved in the mass shooting in Monterey Park, CA. I am sure that, like me, you were horrified when only two days later we learned of another act of senseless gun violence even closer to our home, just north of Carmel on our ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
In his 2019 apostolic letter Aperuit Illis (AI motu prorprio), Pope Francis established that this Sunday, the Third Sunday in Ordinary time, would be devoted to the celebration, study, and dissemination of the word of God. This year the Sunday also falls within the Week of Prayer fo ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
In the Gospel today we encounter a familiar character from the Advent season, John the Baptist. We begin Ordinary Time with his testimony in John’s Gospel. In this account the evangelist does not himself describe the Baptism of the Lord, but rather shares John the Baptists’ retel ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany and encounter in our Gospel the magi who have journeyed from the East to encounter the Christ Child. The scripture does not tell us exactly where they are from, or how many of them there were, their ages or genders. Our Christmas Crèche ...
Dear Friend in Christ,
This time of Advent and preparation for the celebration of the arrival of our Savior is always a good time to reflect on all the blessings we have received in the past year.
As I walk through our beautiful property, I see the many historic artifacts and materials of which we are fortunate enoug ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
The longed for moment has arrived, our Savior is again coming into the world, dispelling darkness with His radiant light. Let us consider for a moment the world He enters, and our own place in it. Christ comes this year to a world at war, I think particularly of the brutal, unjust ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
In the Gospel today we encounter a person whose actions truly speak louder than his words. Joseph’s words are not recounted in Sacred Scripture, but his actions play a vital role in salvation history. We can only imagine what Joseph initially made of Mary’s story, that she had be ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
The Baptist we find in today’s Gospel reading is a far cry from the confident, fiery, if eccentric, figure who we heard proclaiming the coming of the Messiah last week. Alone and afraid in Herod’s prison, John reaches out to his cousin, Jesus, through messengers, seeking reassu ...
