Difficulty in reflecting or preaching on the Assumption has always been the absence of any biblical account that the quot ever Virgin Mary having completed the course of her earthly life was assumed body and soul into heaven quot Pius XII Nov 1 1950 The dogma arose from centuries of reflec

The host of a morning news program was interviewing a writer from Forbes magazine who was lamenting the financial losses suffered by various dot-com billionaires He said that one person rsquo s fortune had fallen to a mere 170 million and another had only a billion left I could barely hold back m

This Sunday rsquo s Gospel makes for difficult reading during the quot dog days quot of summer It speaks of things we would rather gently put aside simple lifestyle almsgiving readiness for the return of the Lord faithful use of the time given us and warnings of punishment The beginning of t

Recently the Jesuits were given pastoral care of St Patrick rsquo s Parish in Oakland Calif a small but spirited community composed mainly of African Americans and Hispanics a community that radiates hospitality One of the great saints of the parish is Mother Dumas age 99 matriarch of a larg

Following last week rsquo s narrative of one praised for quietly sitting in the Lord rsquo s presence this Sunday rsquo s readings focus on the need to voice one rsquo s concerns to God in prayer and on how we should pray The specific instructions are prefaced by Luke rsquo s version of the Lord r

Eery few parables of Jesus have had the impact of the story of the Samaritan who stops and helps an injured man on the desolate road to Jericho The Good Samaritan has been portrayed in art at the Lancet Window at Chartres and by Bassano Giordano and Rembrandt Hospitals and health care systems hav

During the summer months people are on the move as luggage-laden cars inch along packed highways or hordes of people head for airportsall with the hope of some restful change from ordinary life Today rsquo s readings picture people on the move but for very different reasons The reading from Isaia

I never forget my visit to Kenya over 20 years ago I arrived in Nairobi after a long journey and received a kind welcome at the airport only to be sent on a perilous journey to the Gaba Institute in Eldoret I traveled along the winding roads of the Great Rift Valley in a matatu a local taxi with

The solemnity of St John the Baptist is a prelude to the Lukan readings about to unfold in the remainder of Ordinary Time John the Baptist wears a multicolored coat in the New Testament He is a wild desert preacher dressed only in camel skin and eating locusts and wild honey who inaugurates a wi

Homilists often cringe when faced with the prospect of preaching on Trinity Sunday It is the only feast that seems to be named after a doctrine and many of a certain generation were taught that it was a mysterium stricte dictum that is totally beyond human comprehension and expressible only thro