Debt Relief

I remember using the Lubyanka Metro station in Moscow when I visited the Soviet Union in 1983. It is the closest station to Red Square. May the poor people who died there on Monday rest in peace… …Some people have debts that they will never be able to repay. Terrifying to contemplate: I owe more [...]

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Springtime Revelations

Here is my Palm Sunday homily to my beloved Northeast Washington flock. Perhaps you websurfers will get something out of it… Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, but Yours be done. (Luke 22:42) Not everything is immediately visible to the eye. It takes time for some [...]

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Unusual Week to Come

Have you noticed how life can become boring and repetitive? Days pass; weeks pass. We don’t even notice. The weeks are all the same, a dull routine. This is the way it has always been. There were plenty of people living in Jerusalem at the time of Christ who were living dull, routine lives. When [...]

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Festival Day

Hail, thee, festival day! Don’t forget that this is the 376th anniversary of the first Holy Mass in the English-speaking colonies. It was offered on St. Clement’s Island in the Potomac River by Fr. White! …Annunciation Day and Holy Week are always in the spring. In the spring, many things that have lain hidden finally [...]

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March 25, 1995

Fifteen years ago, Pope John Paul II gave us his encyclical letter on the Gospel of Life. In this letter, the Pope coined the phrase, ‘the culture of death.’ Here is a short summary of the encyclical: God gives us life. The innocent are always threatened by violence. In our day and age, the greatest [...]

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Courtroom Drama

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. They said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” “Let the one among you who is without sin [...]

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38 Days and a Season

Your unworthy servant wore his sailboat cufflinks for 38 consecutive days. We hit 70 degrees yesterday afternoon. The garden-of-cufflinks springtime has begun! …Listen, the Georgetown Hoyas got knocked out of the NCAA tournament in the first round. Supposedly, it was a “big upset.” It was NOT a big upset. It was disappointing, not surprising. You [...]

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So Predictable

To the peanut gallery which accuses me of being boring– –to the free-spirits who cringe when they hear how I live out of my little black calendar, get up at the same time EVERY day, scrupulously maintain a slavish routine, observe the rules of every authoritative book, and fantasize only about whether it will be [...]

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Sabbaticals

Come on, seventy degrees. Come on, baby. So close. Don’t be afraid. Come to papa! …The Law of Moses bound the Chosen People to a weekly day of rest. The Law of Death gave the human race rest from sin. But this is the everlasting Sabbath: To believe in God and the One Whom He [...]

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Parable Comparison

A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them…(Luke 15:11 and following) Did you know that there is also a Buddhist parable of the Prodigal Son? Let’s compare the parable [...]

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