of the human person from conception until natural death
On Ash Wednesday, the ship of Lent sets forth and we climb on board. The holy season of Lent is framed by two gestures: the imposition of ashes on our foreheads and the kissing of the Cross, of Christ’s wounds, on Good Friday. The whole drama of human life is…
This weekend’s Gospel opens with the parable asking if someone who is blind can lead others who are blind? It refers to the obvious fact that someone who is ignorant or misguided themselves cannot effectively guide others, as both of them will end up in trouble. No student is better…
The Book of Sirach (its older name) is an Old Testament book variously known as Sirach, the Wisdom of Jesus, Ben Sira, or Ecclesiasticus, not to be confused with another similarly-sounding book entitled Ecclesiastes in the ancient Hebrew Canon of the Old Testament. The earliest of those titles appears to…
Nearly half of the material found in Saint Luke’s Gospel is unique and, as such, not found in any of the other three. Those differences, whether considered to be additions or omissions, if taken collectively, reveal that Jesus was most closely connected with people who appeared to be on the…
The word Genesis (geneseōs) comes from the Septuagint or the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. According to Genesis 2:4, literally, it is “the book of the generation (Gk. γενέσεως) of the heavens and earth.” Its title in the Jewish Scriptures is the opening Hebrew word, bereshit, “in the beginning,”
The Sermon on the Mount related in Matthew 5-7 has much in common with the teaching of Jesus recounted in Luke 6. These two versions of the Beatitudes are best-known by what is found in Matthew (Mt 5:3-12), though, a similar, yet different version is found in Luke (Lk 6:20-26).
Our Lady of Lourdes is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary that recalls her apparitions in 1858 in the grotto at Lourdes, France to Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a fourteen-year-old peasant girl. Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared eighteen times to the fourteen-year-old Bernadette
During the first weeks of Ordinary Time, the Gospels focus upon the call of the Apostles. Among the Synoptic Gospels, Saints Mark (Mk 1:16-20) and Matthew (Mt 4:18-22) recount Jesus walking along the Sea of Galilee and, then, abruptly calling two pairs of brothers to follow Him – Peter and Andrew,
Nature and dignity 