RECENTLY, I READ a newly published book by Brant Pitre, a Scripture scholar and seminary professor. “Jesus the Bridegroom: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told” (Image, 2014), has a simple premise: God loves us.
Lent
Where Prayer and Belief Meet
As Catholics, we adhere very closely to an old Latin saying: “lex orandi, lex credendi,” which, loosely translated, means “the law of prayer is the law of belief.”
A Living Expression of Love
WE’VE ALL HEARD the old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Today’s readings serve as a reminder of just how true this saying is. From Adam and Eve, through the Babylonian Exile, to the Crucifixion and on down to our very time, humanity’s relationship with God has been a true love story, involving people that change and a Love that does not.
Two Lenten Lessons: Service and Solidarity
Recently, I heard an interview with the author and illustrator of a newly released children’s book and got that familiar “I’ve got to have that book” feeling.
Father, Is it a Sin If…
Through the years, there is one question that I’ve come to expect: “Father, is it a sin if…” followed by some particular situation.
Preambles to Faith
Lenten season I decide to read a book that I think will help me observe the season better. This year, I picked a beauty. It is Jesuit Father Michael Gallagher’s “The Human Poetry of Faith: A Spiritual Guide to Life” (New York, Paulist Press, 2003, pp. 142, $12.95). Father Gallagher deals with problems that have been on my mind for years.
Pope Offers Tips for Going to Confession
After a brief explanation of why people should go to confession – “because we are all sinners” – the pope listed 30 key questions to reflect on as part of making an examination of conscience and being able to “confess well.”
No Fighting God
Some months after my son-in-law, Rob Susil, died, a longtime friend asked me in a gentle but point-blank way, “Are you still fighting God?”
Operating in the Care of Strangers
This is my Lenten reflection: We can never be strangers. We all are part of God’s family.
Visiting the Imprisoned on Ash Wednesday
Retired Auxiliary Bishop Emil A. Wcela of Rockville Centre, N.Y., prays over two inmates at the end of an Ash Wednesday Mass at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Riverhead, L.I., Feb. 18.