The word orphan is defined as ‘a child whose parents have died.’ In the original Greek the term is ‘orphanos’ – the translation then is quite literal. Yet, ‘orphanus’ could also be translated as ‘bereaved’… ‘to be deprived of a loved one through a profound absence –...
When I was in seminary the 2006 Winter Olympics were in Torino, Italy… A group of us had gotten tickets to the opening ceremonies and so we got a car and made a weekend trip of it. Now, it’s a long drive from Rome to Turin – like 7 hours… And 2 things happened… we hit...
Throughout the whole Church today is known as the “World Day of Prayer for Vocations” – also known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”. The Gospel, taken from St. John, highlights the nature of Jesus as the Good Shepherd – a model for priesthood. But let’s look at the what...
Have you ever noticed that the lines for Holy Communion are long and yet the lines for Confession are short – whereas in times past, it was the opposite … I have often wondered – what happened? What happened to people in their desire for God’s mercy? Was that even a...
This past Tuesday the Latin students at Pope Francis Prep, with their teacher, joined me for a period of Eucharistic Adoration to pray a decade of the rosary in Latin. But they didn’t just simply recite the Ave Maria, their teacher chanted verses of the Lord’s Passion...
The word ‘shaken’ is defined as a ‘cause of change in mood or attitude by shocking or disturbing someone’. When we experience something traumatic, we might tell people that we were ‘shaken up’. In St. Matthew’s Gospel account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, he notes...
The question that is posed to Jesus about the blind man – who sinned, this man or parents, that he was born blind? In other words – why has this happened to him? Why did God do this to him? Before we tackle this...
The word ‘draw’, in this context, means to ‘to pull or move something in a specific direction.’ St. John tells us that the woman came to draw water from the well and that ‘it was about noon.’ These two details are important… Briefly, lets think about the woman. Most...
I recently came across this story – probably happened around the late 80’s or early 90’s. NASA did some experimenting with a special type of camera that could see the energy levels in the human body. This is then seen on a monitor. This energy shows up as an aura...
One of the greatest compliments that could be said of another person – so and so is the “salt of the earth.” It is an expression that stresses someone’s solid worth, value, dignity… Its like saying –...
Greek historians tell the story of how young Xenophon met Socrates. They met in a narrow road. Socrates prevented the young man from passing by him and began to ask him where he could by different things, where they were made… Xenophon answered and gave him all the...
An ‘Epiphany’ is defined as ‘a sudden revelation’ or ‘insight’. It comes from the Greek ‘epiphanein’ … Epi – meaning ‘on top of’ and ‘phanein’ – meaning ‘appear/show’ … Putting them together we get the real meaning of epiphany – revealing something of enormous...