This excerpt from St. Augustine's Treatise on John's Gospel (Tract. 123, 5: CCL 36, 678-680) is read on the feast day of St. Nicholas, December 6. It focuses on the real meaning of the gift-giving for which St. Nicholas is famous--the self-giving love of a...
The feast of Jesus Christ the Universal King was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and is observed on the last Sunday of the Roman Catholic Liturgical Year. It causes us to meditate on the Second and Final Coming of Christ, the last Judgment,...
The Apocalypse -- What does the Bible really teach about the End of the World, Armageddon, the second coming of Jesus Christ and the final battle against the Antichrist? The gospels and the book of Revelation raise many apocalyptic questions for Christians. For the 33rd...
The gospel story of the Widow's Mite and the Old Testament visit of the prophet Elijah to the Widow of Zarephath are well known bible tales. Two simple but heroic women -- who call us to heroic virtue in a hidden way, in the midst...
The story of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar who met Jesus on the road to Jericho, is a dramatic event from the Gospel of Mark that illustrates something very important about the true nature of Christian faith....
Brothers John and James, the sons of Zebedee, had ambition. When they make their famous request for places of honor In Mark's gospel, Jesus takes the opportunity to give them a lesson on the nature of true greatness as loving and serving, even to the...
Both the Rich Young Man in Mark's Gospel and King Solomon had a very difficult choice to make. In a similar moment of decision, what would be the desire of your heart? Wisdom and adventure, or comfort and convenience? Where do true riches...
We so often condemn the Pharisees that we totally miss a sneaky way that we are often like them. The hard saying of Jesus "if you hand causes you to sin, cut it off" is a kind of shock therapy to wake us up...
St. Bede the Venerable on the call of Matthew, Tax Collector turned disciple, apostle & evangelist. Matthew, originally called Levi, was, as a publican, excommunicated from the life of the synagogue and shunned in Jewish society....
The word amen is familiar to all. But few know its origins and its true meaning, which actually strikes at the very essence of what it means to believe and have faith....