Pastor’s Column 26th Sunday Ordinary Time September 26, 2021 “Better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.” From Mark 9:38-48 This Sunday’s gospel features one of Jesus’ many teachings about hell. It’s hard to duck this issue when Jesus brings it up so often, though I don’t like to talk or write about it. Suffice it to say that for most Christians, the doctrine of Hell is among the least popular subjects, isn’t it? So let’s face it

Pastor’s Column 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time September 19, 2021 “…but they had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the twelve and said, “If anyone wishes to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all.” From Mark 9:30-37 Most of us have been at jobs or have known people in school whom you might charitably call “climbers”. They are the ones who have a deep desire to get ahead of others, and often are will

Pastor’s Column September 12, 2021 24th Sunday Ordinary Time “And he asked them, ‘but who do you say that I am?’” (from Matthew 8:27-35) Who do you say that I am? This gospel always reminds me of a “pop-quiz” that teachers use to check on the progress of their students. Imagine the disciples and Jesus enjoying an evening meal, perhaps by a fire, just relaxing after a successful day of preaching and healing. In the course of a typical conversation with him, Jesus begins by ask

Pastor’s Column 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time September 5, 2021 “…and people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.” Mark 7:32 A joke I sometimes use in wedding homilies is that it always amazes me how soon after a couple is newly married that one of them will go deaf in one ear! This affliction comes and goes, and those times when one ear or the other doesn’t work are usually when a spouse is trying to get the other’s atte