Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Memorial)   The wrath of God is indeed being revealed.    What is this “wrath of God” that Paul talks about here?   How can a God of mercy, love, and compassion also be wrathful?   Even more important:   does the idea of a wrathful God mean we should live in constant fear of him? Absolutely not!   Think of all the times Jesus told his disciples “Fear not.”   Think of all the ways Jesus...

Saint Callistus I, Pope and Martyr (Optional Memorial)   . . . called to belong to Jesus Christ   If you were planning to construct a building in an area subject to frequent earthquakes, you couldn’t just do it haphazardly.   In fact, earthquake zones normally have very rigorous building requirements, especially for the construction of foundations.   That’s because the foundation provides strength and stability to the entire structure. What...

Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary   Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.    Throughout his Gospel, Luke gives special honor to Jesus’ mother, the Virgin Mary.   In the opening chapter, the angel calls her highly favored, and Elizabeth proclaims Mary to be blessed among women.   Many chapters later, in today’s reading (Luke 11:28), we see a similar comment from a woman in the crowd. As the woman said, Mary indeed had the...

Saint John XXIII, Pope (Optional Memorial)   The house of your God is deprived. . . . Cry to the Lord!    In the year 2000, at the start of the new millennium, Pope St. John Paul II celebrated a special Mass for Pardon, in which he led the congregation in prayers of repentance for the sins of God’s people over the past two thousand years. That gesture of repentance—made on behalf of the whole Church—is similar to the summons God made through...

27th Week in Ordinary Time   What do we profit by keeping his command?   The Israelites had been questioning God’s justice.   They saw people who had strayed yet still prospered.   Where was the fairness in that?   If God seemed to be blessing the wicked, they wondered, why should they bother following God’s laws (Malachi 3:14-15)? The people could ask that question only because they were looking at their relationship with God as if it were a...

Saint Denis, Bishop, and Companions, Martyrs (Optional Memorial)   Teach us to pray.   It was a reasonable request.   The disciples had seen Jesus in prayer numerous times.   They had also seen him perform many powerful miracles and minister God’s mercy to many people.   Perhaps there was a link between the two, they must have thought.   Maybe if we learned how to pray like him, we might just become more like him. If this is truly what they...