Weekly Reflections (Page 14)

The Gospel passage (Mt 5:13-16) for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time offers two vivid images that Jesus must have picked up from his Mom, as well as from the simple, daily life of his village of Nazareth. Salt and light.  In ancient time, salt made life better, more livable, and oil lamps extended activities otherwise hindered at sundown. Mary, together with the other housewives of Nazareth used salt to preserve dried fish, sheep and goat meat, and olives. Naturally, they put…

In an episode of the television show, Everybody Loves Raymond, Debra asks Raymond why he doesn’t go to church. His response: “I don’t know. Maybe it is because of the kneeling. You know I have bad knees.” Eventually, however, Raymond turns the tables on his wife and asks her why she goes to church. Her response: “I go to church to thank God for you and the kids…I go to get re-energized…I go to be part of something greater than me…I…

Bad boy Ruth—that was me. Don’t get the idea that I’m proud of my harum-scarum youth. I’m not. I simply had a rotten start in life, and it took me a long time to get my bearings. Looking back to my youth, I honestly don’t think I knew the difference between right and wrong. I spent much of my early boyhood living over my father’s saloon, in Baltimore—and when I wasn’t living over it, I was in it, soaking up…

During the first four centuries of the Church, many heresies developed regarding Jesus Christ. Finally, at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D., the bishops, united with the Pope, clarified the matter: “We teach…one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, known in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.” Just twenty years prior, at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D., there came clarification regarding Our Lady. She was the Theotokos, the God-bearer and Mother of God! In the…