Every day of our lives is filled with making choices. Those choices are often complicated by the fact that the trend in our modern society is that every choice features some kind of competition; we compete for attention, for employment, to win championships, and, unfortunately, even for friendship and love. This kind of competition begins even in our childhood as we wait while the team captain...

Today we celebrate a special part of what we call the Paschal Mystery; namely, the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus. The language that we use to describe this special event is not very helpful when it comes to under-standing the event. The word ascension or ascend or taken up or lifted up all contribute to a rather unfortunate understanding of what happened. We picture the apostles...

One of my favorite anecdotes concerns people who are living through a severe drought. The drought affected everyone, but it affected the farmers of that area much more. Their whole way of life was dependent upon the crops that they grew and sold to keep food on their tables and clothes on their backs. As the drought became more and more severe, the people of one congregation decided that they...

As I mentioned yesterday, sorrow and grief are an ever-present part of daily life. Each of us can expect to endure sorrow and faced challenges. Yet as disciples of Jesus, we know that we are not facing these difficulties alone – that sometimes God’s loving presence can be experienced in surprising ways. Today’s readings and the memorial we keep of the apostle of Molokai,...

The Gospel text for today features five verses from chapter sixteen of the Gospel of St. John. The first four of those verses seem to repeat the same thing over and over again both from the perspective of Jesus, who speaks these words to the disciples, and from the perspective of the disciples, who are confused by their meaning. The very last verse that we read today shifts into a...