From Season to Season

Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. —Luke 9:28-31 In her Revelations of Divine Love , the medieval mystic Blessed Julian of Norwich wrote:      I saw him and still sought him,         For we are now so blind and so unwise that we never seek God         until he of his goodness shows himself to us;      and when we see anything of him by grace, then are we moved by         the same grace to try with great desire to see him more perfectly.      And thus I saw him and I sought him,         and I possessed ...

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread”… When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time. —Luke 4:1-4, 13     In his novel Brighton Rock , Graham Greene wrote, “You can’t conceive, my child, nor can I or anyone, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God.” Lent is the time when the Church pauses to reflect on the reality of that mercy. And, when weighed against human standards, God’s mercy is appallingly strange because it costs us so little: God asks only that we surrender to his love and mercy. For most of us, this process of surrender is one which unfolds gradually over the course of a life of prayer, service, struggle, and even setbacks. However, the temptation to cho...

On February 11, we commemorate the Immaculate Virgin Mary who appeared to Saint Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, France, eighteen times between February 11 and July 16, 1858. This memorial of Mary, under the title of “Our Lady of Lourdes,” was extended to the Universal Church by Pope Saint Pius X in 1907. The apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes is one of the most celebrated events in the Catholic Church in the nineteenth century. In fact, the popularity of “Our Lady of Lourdes” contributed to the renewal of the Catholic Faith throughout France and the shrine that marks the site of the apparitions remains one of the most popular destinations for pilgrims anywhere in the world. Part of the popularity of Lourdes comes from the large number of graces that individuals have received there, particularly miraculous healings. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the commemoration of Our Lady of Lourdes is also celebrated as the World Day of the Sick . The great miracle of Lourdes, however...

Saint Apollonia was an aged deaconess of the church of Alexandria. It is recorded that, as she was being beaten during an anti-Christian riot, all her teeth were knocked out. She was burned to death around the year 249.  Saint Apollonia by Francisco de Zurbarán Because of the suffering she endured, Saint Apollonia is honored as the patron of dentists and those with toothaches. In today’s Gospel , the scribes and Pharisees lash out at Jesus and his followers for not following the religious traditions that had been handed down by the elders. Jesus, however, reminds them that God isn’t interested in outward acts of piety. Instead, he reminds us that we must honor God in our hearts by loving and obeying God first. Our acts of devotion, if they are to be sincere, must then flow from that internal devotion and reverence. As we celebrate the memory of the martyr Apollonia today and prepare for Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent, take time to reflect on your Lenten bona opera —“g...

Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, Jesus asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. —Luke 5:3–6 This past week, as I was reflecting on this Sunday’s Gospel and thinking about what I would write in this reflection, I happened to have a conversation with another member of my religious community , during which he shared a question he recently asked the members of his parish in a daily homily: “How do you respond when someone confronts you about something you’ve done wrong?” It’s a good question. He shared three possible responses with his parishioners. “First,” he said, ...