The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

What's in it for me? We hear that sometimes when someone may ask for a favor. Well, yeah, I'll do that, but what's in it for me? Why should I do that? What am I going to get out of it? It's hard sometimes, even under the surface, not to think that way. I remember a woman who came to the parish asking for some assistance, and that's a rather interesting thing, because I learned...

In the gospel for the 31st Sunday, Jesus takes on the Pharisees. But just what is Pharisee? The Pharisees were a religious group of Jews that arose to become more devoted to the practice of the Jewish religion. Unlike the Sadducees who came from the priestly class, the Pharisees were lay people. The Pharisees probably had their beginning during the exile when sacrificial worship was no longer poss...

So, if you don't know, my first name is DePorres. That's not because my parents were overly zealous in naming me. It's not my baptismal name. It's my religious name. And it's for Saint Martin de Porres, whose feast we celebrate today. Why Saint Martin de Porres for me? Well, in particular, it's because I find in his life a very compelling example of what it means to be Chri...

So, it's interesting that we have the same reading for the gospel that we had yesterday. Now there are tons of choices in here, and I wish the church in her wisdom would just simply say, these are the readings to do for all souls, but it doesn't. I guess there's good reason for that. But when we hear the Jesus talk about the Beatitudes, we might not really get a sense of the word that&...

One of the strangest things about human existence, it seems to me, is that human beings can love someone before they even get to know them. Most of us, if not all of us, have concrete experience of that. Because when we were born, our parents didn't hedge their bets. They didn't say, for example, well, I will wait to get to know who this child of mine is before I make the decision about wh...

This is a very Dominican gospel. Listening to Jesus talk about how he wants to set the world on fire. That he, in fact, is the Lord of all. He has come to establish a kingdom. He gives his life for our sins. He leads us to eternal life. And he can't wait to get that adventure underway. The image of a flame is an important one. St. Catherine of Siena said that if we were who we were meant to be...

This is a very Dominican gospel. Listening to Jesus talk about how he wants to set the world on fire. That he, in fact, is the Lord of all. He has come to establish a kingdom. He gives his life for our sins. He leads us to eternal life. And he can't wait to get that adventure underway. The image of a flame is an important one. St. Catherine of Siena said that if we were who we were meant to be...

I think I've mentioned this quote from St. Augustine before, that the Old Testament is hidden in the New, and the New Testament is revealed in the Old. Excuse me, I did that backwards. The Old Testament is—let me get this right now, I'm going to get it all wrong. Not a good way to start the morning. The New Testament is hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. That&...

We have a really well-formed, well-developed, and pretty much accepted theory of government where there's a separation of church and state. Remember the people that came to this country in the United States, (and) I'm speaking from the United States perspective. I know we have listeners from other parts of the world, but I'm speaking here that we had people that came to this country wh...

Today's Gospel is a warning. It's a warning about the dangers of hypocrisy. Now, we're all capable of hypocrisy and quite frankly every time we sin, we can be capable of hypocrisy because we may project one thing to people but then commit sin when we're really not thinking anybody's going to notice. So, hypocrisy is not a limited reality. But when we don't acknowledge our h...

There was a not so pleasant part of our theological history as Catholics and as Christians when it came to the question about who bore responsibility for the death of Jesus. And for a long time, there was kind of this ugly tendency to say, well, of course, the Jews did. John's Gospel says it. Again, the Jews did this, the Jews did that, and so forth. And it created a rather ugly period. As a m...

The Pharisees are really an interesting group. On the one hand, they are very serious about their faith. They really do believe that by their actions, they're doing what God wants. But truth be told, they're getting it backwards. Over time, they've become to see their desire to separate themselves from the unclean, have led them to focus more on externals than on internals. In other wo...

I live in a state whose motto is the "show me" state, and while it is not exactly clear how that nickname or slogan arrived for the state of Missouri , it is in fact an interesting expression. Some suggest it was a speech by a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri. Others suggest it was something that was said to miners from Missouri and Colorado because the miners fr...

Today's readings talk really about the invitation to salvation. In the first reading, we see what salvation is going to be like, and the images that are used are things that in fact are known to us, things that would be appealing to many. The rich food, the choice wines, really the mountain that just has everything we could possibly need, the mountain that is the mountain of salvation. And the...

Be Attentive and Observe Hello and welcome to Spend Five with Jesus for this Saturday, October 14th, 2023. I am the friar and I'm so happy that you could join us today. Today's gospel is really short but there's a lot packed into it when we really kind of get underneath it and see what's going on here. So it's quite simple. Jesus is speaking. A woman in the crowd calls out and...

Warning Hello and welcome to Spend Five with Jesus. I am the Friar. Today is Friday, October 13th, 2023. I am delighted to have you with us today. Today our first reading for Mass came from the book of the prophet Joel, and it's a good one I think. It causes us, I think when we really explore it a little bit in this reflection, to see things perhaps a little bit upside down, to see things mayb...

We know we hear how important it is to pray. Read any book on the spiritual life and they'll tell you how important it is to pray. But in my experience, the reality is that while we may want to pray, we don't always know how to. We don't always know what to do. To be sure, when someone we love is sick, for example, or there's a tremendous need in our lives or things aren't goin...

Nicene Creed: God the Son To understand this part of the creed, it is important to remember the significant source of the Arian heresy. Namely, how can there be three persons in one God? Or, put another way, is Jesus really fully God, or some lesser God created by the Father? The answer has probably become so familiar to us that we don't think much about it these days. Of course. We understand...

These are just the readings of the day, but I think today's gospel probably fits well with Linda. I'll leave it to you to decide whether she's Martha or Mary, but the gospel has a very particular point, but I want to begin with the first reading today, because the first reading is really a continuation of this great story of Jonah. Jonah has been called by God to preach to the people o...

You might not know much about what happened in the first reading. You may not know who Ruth was, why they left, and ultimately what happened to Ruth and ultimately to us. They went to a foreign land because they were in need. They were refugees. They went into this foreign land and they were fortunate. They were allowed to do what is called gleaning the field. To glean the field means that they we...

Refugee, Migrant, Foreigner Hello and welcome to Spend Five with Jesus for this Monday, October 9th, 2023. Start of another work week and hopefully it's a good start for everyone here. If it's not, let's pray for each other and make it a little bit better day. Okay, today we have two readings that really focus on how to treat foreigners. The first reading from the book of the prophet J...

Problem or Solution? Transcript There's a saying, "If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem." I used to say when I was president of another school in the Chicago area, "Don't just bring me a problem, bring me some solutions." Today Jesus, in a way, is kind of speaking of this very same truth. We get two parallel stories that are quite...

Hello and welcome to Spend Five with Jesus on this Sunday, October 8th, 2023. I am the friar, and it is just a marvelous day today, and I'm so glad you have joined us. I want to focus today on Paul's letter to the Philippians because I think it is really something that is really appropriate for our day. It just feels to me like this is a really good reading to teach us about how to deal wi...

Hello and welcome to Spend Five with Jesus for this Saturday, October 7th, 2023. I am the friar. I'm happy to be with you today. Today is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. And as a Dominican, I simply cannot say enough about the rosary. It is such an important spiritual help to me. I pray it every day. I know many people pray it every day. And it really is an act or a prayer of confidence b...

Hello and welcome to Spend Five with Jesus for this Friday, October 6th, 2023. I am the Friar. It is wonderful to have you with us today. Today in the first reading for Mass we hear from the prophet Baruch. Now many of you may not know who Baruch is. He was an assistant to Jeremiah and if you remember anything about the time of Jeremiah there are maybe two things that are important to call to mind...