by Father Jean-Pierre Ruiz FREE ASSOCIATION is a funny thing: when I think of John 3:16, football is inevitably the first thing that comes to mind. The gridiron and God so loved the world — what gives? Maybe you remember seeing the man with the crazy colorful wig in the stands behind the goalposts at […]
Sunday Scriptures
A Message We Still Need to Hear
by Father Jean-Pierre Ruiz “We preach Christ crucified.” That’s what St. Paul has to say to the Corinthians in the second reading for the third Sunday of Lent. As we know, St. Paul wrote letters to the young Christian communities where he had preached the Good News in person. By means of these letters, he […]
Fathers Have Power to Impart Authentic Faith
by Father Jean-Pierre Ruiz I’m proud to be the son of Pedro Ruiz. I can tell you — with all due respect to my teachers — that I learned more from him about what it means to live as a person of authentic faith than I could learn from all the books that have ever […]
Human Beings Have Free Will To Choose Good Over Evil
by Father William A. McLaughlin Reflecting on the incidents of human brutality during the American Civil War, our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, once spoke with hope that his countrymen would eventually choose to follow their “better angels” instead. This points to how the human heart may follow either the impulses of those bad spirits […]
How Well Do We Keep Our Word to God?
by Father William A. McLaughlin THERE WAS A TIME when a person’s word was his bond. When someone promised something, his reputation depended on his keeping his word. This understanding worked when people lived together in smaller communities. Neighbors and business associates remembered promises, and it was in their interest to honor them. This seems […]
Forgiveness Heals and Frees Us To Imitate Christ
by William A. McLaughlin, Murphy’s Law holds that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst time possible. How awful for someone to wake up on the morning of a job interview, a graduation photo session, or a wedding to look in the mirror and find a large, unsightly pimple on […]
His Healing Leads Us from Slavery to Freedom
by Father William A. McLaughlin, THE UNITED STATES is currently commemorating the 150th anniversary of its Civil War. Americans have reflected on the causes of this national struggle. Some historians place the blame squarely on the issue of slavery which was tearing at the national fabric. So many years since the abolition of slavery in […]
All Our Hope Resides in Jesus
by Father Caleb Buchanan DURING THE SEASON of Advent, the priest utters a startling phrase that explains and introduces the reason for the Incarnation: “When our need for a Savior was great……” It is hard to imagine an age when this phrase doesn’t ring true in our lives. In every age until the end of […]
Christ Must Be First and Foremost
by Father Caleb Buchanan, SOME OF THE MOST beautiful sermons, homilies and reflections on the Scriptures were written by the Fathers of the Church. Their sermons would make mincemeat out of a lot of the mega-church, “feel-good,” “prosperity Gospel preaching” that floods T.V. on Sundays and brings billions of dollars into expanding Christian multimedia empires. […]
We Are A New People, A New Creation
by Father Caleb Buchanan “JESUS CHRIST IS the radiant dawn of a new creation, new people, a new freedom.” We have just concluded the Christmas season regaling the Lord Jesus Christ and celebrating His birth with unspeakable joy. We completed this season of festive hope with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The […]