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Ongoing Formation

We are into the second half of Ordinary Time…the time of ongoing formation for disciples. It is our yearly refresher course in the meaning of our baptism. We are becoming better disciples of the Word with each passing year. Day by day, with each Eucharist, the Risen Lord transforms us, little by little just as he transforms the bread and wine. He makes us more and more food for others and wine to delight our hearts, getting us through the tough times. So we are slowly moving toward Advent, but we have some important formation to go through yet. Notice that the structure of the Liturgy has just put us through the Bread of Life weeks…yes, the cycle of Mark was interrupted by a few weeks of again turning to John. This happens whenever that Church wants to take our formation into deep water. John’s gospel on the Bread of Life is featured. Why? Because we need to be reminded how our “change” takes place. As Godfrey Diekman, OSB said years ago: “What difference does it make that Jesus can ...
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The First Disciple

With this month of September, as if taking a clue from the glorious Feast of the Assumption, the Marian Feasts appear. September 8th, the Birthday of Mary; the 12 th , the Holy Name of Mary; the 15 th , the Sorrows of Mary; the 24 th , the ancient feast of Our Lady of Ransom. The Marian tribute flows into October with the Feast of the Rosary on October 7. Why does the Church do this? Ask this of the readings… Nestled in this Green Formation-in-DiscipleshipTime, what role does the Mother of Jesus play in the fostering of our own discipleship? In our own formation? In our own spirituality? In the life of the Church? Fear not that she will replace her Son in our lives. But don’t miss the fact that she is given to us as the model of our own formation in discipleship. We look to our mother to see what we shall be. We look to her to see how one becomes a true disciple. Yes, she was conceived without the sin of Adam. The blood her Son would shed would intercept it…the blood she gave Him...
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This is my Body…

We’ve just celebrated a significant Revival in honor of the presence of the risen Jesus in the Eucharist. The reason for this effort is a survey that revealed many Catholics are no longer believing that the consecrated host holds the real presence of the risen Jesus. They learned it when they studied their catechism, but now, as science has taken center stage on TV, how are they to explain it in conversation? What might we say to our families and friends when they ask us about this? How might this month’s readings help us with this? We might begin by saying that the mystery of the incarnation really has three steps…down. First, our wild loving God in the person of the Word, stepped down into the Virgin’s womb. The Word fused itself with our DNA…our double helix. If that is not amazing enough, he took a second step…down. The Word in the humanness of Christ Jesus chose to enter the worst level of human suffering, death by execution by your very own kin. But there is a third step. The t...
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Updating Our View of God

This beautiful time in glow of Easter brings us some of the greatest feasts of the Liturgical Year: the Ascension, Pentecost, and near the end of the month, The Trinity. We have learned that the Ascension is not just ‘Yay, Jesus!’ but the realization that our own humanness, our very DNA is now located in the very Heart of God. We have understood better that the coming of the Spirit into our lives can come in doses of small, medium, or large. But the Trinity?     Years ago, we learned it well: There are Three Persons in God, but there is only one God. That was it. We may have learned it, but why is it that when we are asked to explain it to a Jewish or Muslim friend, to our family, we are tongue-tied. We really don’t know what to say. Maybe it’s time for an update, for moving this most profound of Feasts from the language of doctrine to the language of meaning.  Why do we, of all the world religions, believe that there are three ‘somethings’ in God? Because Jesus told ...
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Tips from the USA Dominicans Preaching Contacts

On November 17, 2023, the Preaching Contact Persons from the USA Dominican Communities shared pointers they suggest make preaching events memorable…! We thought you would like to know what they said:      ·        Connect with history as appropriate; help us understand whatever is being celebrated (i.e. Translation of remains of Dominic, Triumph of the Cross). ·        Share just enough appropriate historical background. ·        Know your audience and remember that holidays are times of joy and sorrow; speak to both realities…!   ·        Know context: What is happening in the world? ·        Use a line from Scripture and repeat it appropriately for emphsis. ·        Just the right length - not too long and not too short…! ·        Never ram...
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Let Your Light Shine?

 We have experienced the shortest day of the year, and the light is growing stronger each day. Liturgically, we have just celebrated the season of lights. But as we listen to the evening news, we often feel anything but lightsome. What are we to make of this contrast? Often we sense that the Church lives in its own faith-world, while I live in the real world. But after a bit of thought, maybe what we really all live in, is the tension between light and darkness. There is a tug-of-war, and I have to decide daily what side I’m on…!  Interestingly, this is exactly what the Dominican shield captures. Whether viewed from the bottom up or the top down, the light is piercing the darkness. Maybe that is just the point: we live in the tension between light and darkness, between truth and lies, between peace and war, between the now and the not-yet.  The scriptures for this time right after Christmas assure us of one thing: the Light has come, and the darkness is not going to o...
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While Waiting in the Dark

Advent is a time of immense waiting. We wait for what we cannot yet see. It is growing…coming to be, but we wait in the darkness of unknowing. The liturgy gives us a woman during this season to teach us how to trust that something is going to emerge from the darkness. The darkness is going to give way to the light. We can learn much from Mary during this Advent time, especially because the present darkness around us is so intense. The woman is aware that her very being is shaping something, yet the design is being woven by an unseen hand. Her humanness is providing the ‘stuff,’ the DNA, the cells, the tissue, the bone, but she does not see what it is becoming. But SomeOne else has the plan. She assists the plan. She eats, sleeps, speaks, and waits. It sounds like us, the Church, doesn’t it. We so long for all the bickering to stop. We long for the corruption to end. We want the immigrants to find a home. We want the wars to cease for lack of interest. Yet all the while our longin...
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