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Where did the expression “Holy Mackerel” come from?  Was it the surprise catch of 153 fish by the apostles a few days after the resurrection of Jesus? You’d think that these fisher-apostles would instinctively try to prevent torn nets and a capsized boat. Instead their attention was on the man on the shore. They said,…

Except for the time Jesus was asleep in the boat during the storm, Jesus always seems on the go. Even after a long day of teaching, he managed to feed five thousand. Wearied by his itinerant preaching, he still had the energy to bless children. Perhaps his work ethic came from his foster father. We…

If Jesus were to ask me, as he asked his disciples, “Who do people say I am?  Who do you say that I am?” I know one thing for sure: Whatever I say will miss the Reality. I’m conditioned by pictures, early education, Scripture studies, life experience, cosmology and its impact of theological expression, and…

Today is my youngest sister’s birthday. She and her husband have great plans to celebrate together without other family members, but she is very much in my thought and prayer. Sometimes people think that Sisters have given up their families.  In some ways that’s true. We do place our religious community first in many ways;…

We wait with Mary as she reflects…. Gone is the sorrow of realizing that the Scriptures would be fulfilled in him. Gone is the sorrow of anticipating the agony of the Suffering Servant. Gone is the sorrow that tore my heart yesterday as I stood beneath the cross. Gone is the sorrow of seeing his…

Is there any pain more wounding than that of one whose selfless, unconditional love is rejected? A son or daughter leaves home in anger. A spouse cuts himself off from years of marriage. A teacher tries desperately to reach an unreachable student, only to be lied about and thus losing her reputation. The Holy One…

On the night of the Last Supper after Jesus and the apostles sang, they went to the Garden of Gethsemani. I imagine that Jesus went to this garden for the comfort it would give him when humans slept in indifference. Perhaps Gethsemani was Jesus’ favorite garden, its olive trees supporting his back as he came…

We read with indignation that Judas stole from the common purse. How could he betray the trust of Jesus and the other apostles? We would never do such a thing–or would we? The common purse of Earth’s resources is entrusted to us. How do we use the contents? Do we open the purse strings just…

“He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there.”  John 10:40 NRSV Jesus was a marked man. He would have been arrested had he not “escaped from their hands.” Jesus went across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing. Perhaps he…

“How can you believe what I say?” John 5:47 Leo Buscaglia claims that “you can’t learn anything without having to readjust everything that you are around the new things that you’ve learned.” The Jews to whom Jesus speaks in today’s gospel are unwilling to readjust. They accepted the testimony of Moses, but not that of…