Tomorrow may be Valentine’s Day, but it wasn’t a “sweet and gentle Jesus” that we saw today. Today’s gospel contains some of Jesus’ most demanding statements.  He used strong and dramatic language to exhort his disciples to a make a radical commitment to God that went far beyond the rabbinic…

If you’ve been to Rockefeller Center in NYC and visited the RCA building you may have noticed the huge murals depicting man’s progress in the mastery of nature. They show man working with the lever, hammers, mallet, chisel and the stages of industry and commerce. Amid these many pictures of…

I imagine most of us have “put away Christmas” by now. We’ve dismantled the tree and removed the fragile ornaments, tucking them away in their boxes. But once the Christmas season is over, do we put our faith away with the rest of the “Christmas decorations?” Outside the Christmas season,…

The day after a recent and unexpected surgery, my doctors told me I should walk as much as possible.  As I began my first walk, dragging my IV pole and a couple of tubes, it seemed like a drudgery that is until I rounded the corner that led to the…

In my home town, as in many small towns in the Adirondacks, there were cultural divisions. There were the Catholics, the Protestants, the Jews – the French, the Germans, the merchants and the mill workers; the lists go on.  These divisions governed the customs and behavior of some people, although we were fiercely…

The Walk, by Richard Paul Evans is a popular novel that tells of a man, named Al, who lost everything – his job, his home and the love of his life – all within a short period of time. He struggles for peace and meaning in life and decides to…

One of the saddest things I’ve encountered as a photographer is the group who comes in for a “family” photo, but excludes some of the children because they don’t fully belong. Dad will tell the older children to sit outside while the family has their photo taken. They are not…

Our Gospel today focuses on Joseph as he accepted to live his life in a manner that he had not chosen for himself. He might have been tempted to say “Forget it! I don’t want any part of this.” He could have been tempted to run away, but God tells…

It’s all about the Kingdom and the birth of Jesus. The readings for this week talk about the coming of God, and they tell us to be brave and patient. “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the…

You may have heard the story about a family who was in a motel room and the dad was preparing to give a speech at a convention. The program was very precise and he had a certain number of minutes to talk so it was very important that he have…