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Luke 14:25-32 My grandmother displayed several pictures of Jesus as the Good Shepherd in her home. These portrayals of our Lord often brought me consolation, especially through periods of uncertainty. A meditative gaze into these portraits led me to Jesus, who, with his shepherd’s crook, lovingly and wisely led me through valleys and into light and life.   Yet Luke’s passage portrays […]

Chances are, you are quite familiar with the story of Mary and Martha of Bethany in the Gospel of Luke (10:39-42). In this domestic scene, Mary listens and worships at Jesus’ feet. In contrast, Martha serves and worries. Martha then complains that her sister isn’t helping. And as a soft rebuke, Jesus tells her that […]

Were epidemics and/or pandemics part of St. Angela Merici’s experience? The pandemic “Black Death” scourged Europe from 1346 to 1353. When Angela was born (1474), plague was periodic and local. Milan suffered an epidemic in the 1490s and Brescia in 1524, during her time there. People trembled before their vulnerability to disease. There is no […]

Fasting from the Eucharist? Who knew this would be our Lenten fast in 2020, the pinch of this hunger? The corona virus has shifted our Eucharistic life online. An invisible community around our separate screens replaces – expands – the tangible community around the altar. Not all bad, for a time, to sense the invisible […]

Indigestion – nightmares – quarrels – bitterness. Stress and division afflict me and most of our country. “What happens on November 9?” No matter who wins the presidency or which way the Senate tilts, we need reconciliation! We Christians look to Jesus, the One who prayed for his killers: “Father, forgive them.” We Americans take […]

Being together – “insieme” – is what St. Angela Merici recommended so strongly to her daughters that one directive to the Company’s leaders uses the word four times: “Take care to have your daughters come together from time to time in the place you think best and most convenient… so that, together like this, they […]

“My heart is wrenched,” St. Angela said. My heart – our hearts – are wrenched. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! Lord, hear my voice! (Psalm 130) How many cities, how many lives before these…? Minneapolis – Lord, have mercy! Baton Rouge – Christ, have mercy! Dallas – Lord, have mercy! […]

Did PBS have a tip-off from the Vatican about the Jubilee Year of Mercy when its TV series “Mercy Street” went into production for this year? Merciful, merciless… they’re all here, in these “inspired-by-history” episodes set in a Civil War hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. My ears pricked up whenever the characters claimed mercy as their […]