Today’s readings seem to warn against the tendency to think and act as though the movements of the Holy Spirit could be institutionally controlled – the tendency to suppose that the initiative is ours rather than God’s. The passages from the Acts of the Apostles and from St. John’s Gospel seem to tell the same story in different ways, but both emphasize that the...
Chapter twenty of the Gospel of St. John ends with these words: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.” Apparently, he had an afterthought because chapter twenty-one...
Right now, many young people are graduating from college and high school. Most of them are looking forward to the future and have many ideas about how they can get ahead in the world. They are full of energy and enthusiasm. I can remember when I felt like that, and I daresay, so can you.
Eventually, all the young people who are graduating this year will come to a point in their lives where...
We have an exceptional privilege in these last chapters of St. John’s Gospel. Since the sixteenth century, this chapter of St. John’s Gospel has been called the “high priestly prayer” of Jesus. He speaks as intercessor, with words addressed directly to the Father and not to the disciples, who supposedly only overhear. Yet the prayer is one of petition, for immediate and...
The Scripture readings for today mention savage wolves and the Evil One. Both St. Paul and Jesus warn their disciples to be aware of the threats that are present as they tend the flock over which God has placed them as pastors.
Only God can create. However, we can take the good created by God and turn it away from the good for which it was intended. Evil can creep into even the good we seek...