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Given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri.      Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. The readings for Today. It can be the case that we so emphasize knowing about Jesus tha...

Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. The readings for this post can be found by clicking here . Persecution. Listen to this from a Crux Article in March of this year : “Anti-Christian persecution is one of the most dramatic hu...

Given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri.      Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. I am so hungry. There are a lot of hungry people in the world. The physical hunger...

Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. The readings for this post can be found by clicking here . Every night as my community prays night prayer , or compline , part of the prayer is singing this phrase: “Lord, into your hands I...

Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. The readings for this post can be found by clicking here . “Filled with grace and power.” These words are an interesting way to describe a man about to be executed. In an age where someone...

Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. The readings for this post can be found by clicking here . “You denied the Holy and Righteous One.” In speaking to the people, Peter does something that is rather interesting. He is talking...

The readings for this post can be found by clicking here . "Do not be afraid." “ The phrase "Fear not! (or equivalent translations) appears only slightly over 100 times in the Old Testament, as well as slightly over 40 times in the New Testament. ” (Some claim there are 365 such citations in the bible, but, while inspiring (one for each day of the year) it is not biblically accurate.)

The readings for this post can be found by clicking here . Are you a narrow thinker of faith, or a broad thinker? Today’s first reading presents narrow thinking about God and broad thinking about God. We have seen for the past few days narrow thinking about the apostles. For the members of the Sanhedrin, the apostles can only be seen as troublemakers limiting their power. Maybe they even thought t...

The readings for today. We do not always remember, but every time we are at Mass we witness the intersection of heaven and earth. In fact, we live in a world that is constantly infused with heavenly things if we look with the eyes of faith. Do you focus on heaven or earth?

The readings for this post can be found by clicking here . Obedience. Little kids are told to obey their parents. Students are told to obey their teachers. In a dangerous situation we might be asked to obey certain directions for our safety. When the word is used, it can be used in connection to following the direction of someone who is more powerful than we are.

It can be easy to say we do not believe in God. Or, it can be easy as well to take the love of God for us for granted. Imagine if married couples ignored each other because they said, "I know they love me." Or imagine children saying the same to their parents. We can do this with God. While it is true that God loves us infinitely, in a way we cannot grasp, it does not mean we do not need to seek t...

The readings for this post can be found by clicking here . Generally speaking people do not admit when they are jealous. Somehow, we learn early that this feeling is something unpleasant and not to be acknowledged. This leads, at its worst, to horrible actions. People in relationships can cause harm to others when they are jealous. People who are jealous can waste so much energy thinking about som...

The readings for Today . An authentic relationship with Jesus does not mean we cannot trust our intellect. But it does mean we need to believe in miracles. Nicodemus can accept the authority of Jesus' teaching, but the idea he would have to be born from above is too much. Do you believe in miracles?

The readings for this post can be found by clicking here . While I do not hear it as much anymore, there was a period of time where Christians (especially Evangelical Christians) would ask others if they had been born again. If the answer was yes, often individuals would identify themselves as “Born Again Christians.” Interestingly, however, they are making the same mistake that Nicodemus made as...

The readings for this post can be found by clicking here . It is understandable that with the world we live in today we feel afraid. There seems to be an ever-increasing amount of anxiety in our lives. Studies bear this out. Our mental health is not so good. And there are many reasons for this.

Over and over God has set things up for us that we might know and be aware of his love for each one of us. And, at least for me, it feels like over and over again I sin. Yet fortunately for all of us, Jesus is a God who forgives. Here are the readings for today.

Do you remember these two sports calls? Here’s the first. “ Do you believe in miracles? Yes! ” How about the second? “Swing and a ground ball, stabbed by Foulke. He has it, he underhands to first -- and the Boston Red Sox are the world champions. For the first time in 86 years, the Red Sox have won baseball’s world championship. Can you believe it?” Both of these are sports quotes. The first, espe...

The readings for this post are from Saturday, April 10, 2021. “ They recognized them as the companions of Jesus .” Would it be the case that you would be recognized as a companion of Jesus? The other day it was about recognizing Jesus. But today it is about being recognized . The way in which Peter and John are recognized goes from what may appear to be insulting ( “perceiving them to be uneducate...

“There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” The name of Jesus. One thing that feels to me like it has changed is the ease at which people use the name of Jesus in a derogatory way. It is a curse word among too many today. But in today’s reading , the name of Jesus is the name that saves. We read, “It was...

Peace. It seems to be so elusive today. We seem so angry. We seem at each others' throats. There seem to be so much violence in the world. Shootings, Domestic violence, wars. It is no surprise that Jesus wishes peace to his disciples and to us. Readings for Today Given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. You can subscribe to our podcast by clicking the link of th...

Today I am going to suggest using a phrase from today’s gospel as something to think about as you settle into five minutes of silence with Jesus. “ They had come to recognize him. ” Think about that phrase for a minute. “ They had come to recognize him. ” It is the passage of the gospel that immediately follows the story of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus who did not know Jesus despite walking...

So the past couple of days I introduced the concept of silent prayer. Sometimes this is called mental prayer, sometimes it is contemplative prayer. Today, this very day, it is time to give this a try. So here’s what I suggest you do.

Mary. Jesus is recognized when he calls Mary by name . Such is a tremendous truth in our faith. We are always called by name. In fact, one of the first questions a priest asks the parents is "What name have you given your child?" Listen carefully because today Jesus will be calling you by name.

The techniques used in mindfulness meditation are helpful to the process of prayer. For this reason, I am not critical of those who engage in mindfulness, or mindfulness meditation, but if they stop at the end of mindfulness meditation, I would suggest it is like looking at the cake for desert, getting ready to eat it, but never really enjoying the cake by eating it. At any rate, the purpose of me...

One challenge for some Catholics is that they know they should pray, but beyond asking God to protect loved ones, heal those who are sick, that is, intercessory prayer, they do not always know what to do. They want to pray, but they do not know how to pray. I have become more convinced over my life that the beginning of prayer is to still the heart. That is, to enter on sacred ground where we plac...