When you think about it, our world is full of empty promises -- and not just the obvious ones from advertisements about losing weight or attracting members of the opposite sex. Everything in our culture seems to be based on promises: you will be happy if you have possessions, power, prestige, pleasure, or whatever else the world can offer you. But humans have learned from experience since the earliest days of history, that none of these things can give us ultimate satisfaction, ultimate meaning. Yet still, we find ourselves in headlong pursuit of these things, setting ourselves up for inevita ..read more

The gospel for this year's celebration of the Ascension is Matthew's account (28:16-20). The apostles havegone to Galilee as they'd been instructed, and there the risen Jesus appeared to him. Then follows a puzzling verse: "When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted." The Greek verb meaning “to doubt” is very revealing: distazō  comes from di- “double” and stasis, “standing.” Literally it means "to stand in two places at the same time."  It's used to describe what happened to St. Peter one night on the Sea of Galilee. The apostles, you remember, were out on the sea in a bo ..read more

The past two weekends have been so full that I've had to neglect my blog. My apologies to those who enjoy reading my weekly posts. I would like to present to you at post from a couple of years ago, trusting that it will still hjave some relevance.  This year our Archbishop has once again transferred the celebration of the Ascension of the Lord from Thursday to the following Sunday, May 24. The message of the feast, however, remains the same. The liturgy of the paschal season has been leading us toward this feast for weeks, and reflecting on the meaning of the mystery of the Ascension ca ..read more

"Lord, show us the Father," Twice this week the liturgy presented us with the passage from John Chapter 14, in which Philip ask Jesus “show us the father.”  As a Jew, Philip is aware of that mysterious passage in the 24th chapter of Exodus: Moses then went up [Mount Sinai] with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel, and they beheld the God of Israel. Under his feet there appeared to be sapphire tilework, as clear as the sky itself. Yet he did not lay a hand on these chosen Israelites. They saw God, and they ate and drank (Ex.24:9-11). So maybe Phi ..read more

A couple of days ago I was reading the story of David and the Philistine giant Goliath. The famous tale tells of how the two mismatched warriors  stood opposite one another at a distance and traded threats and insults in a kind of preliminary ritual. Then, when the ritual shouting was over, the writer tells us "David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine." (1 Sam. 17:48) When I read this verse I was reminded that I'm not very good at "running toward the battle line" in a potential conflict situation. I'm one of those folks who tries to avoid conflict wheneve ..read more

  The book we’re reading at supper in the monastery is entitled Louis Bamberger Louis Bamberger: Department Store Owner and Philanthropist. I’m really enjoying it because the book brings back all sorts of memories of shopping in Bamberger’s department store in downtown Newark as a little child. The author writes about the early days of department stores, and the innovations that they introduced. One new approach to retail sales was the “fixed price,” which meant there was no haggling involved: the price of each item was marked, and that was what the customer paid. I had not ..read more

A friend pointed out to me a day or two ago that I hadn't written a post for Easter. I had been so delightfully busy during Holy Week that writing a post simply slipped my mind. Please excuse me! Here's something I've been reflecting on since Thursday, when I preached on the day's gospel passage. In the familiar story of the two apostles on their way home to Emmaus on the first Easter morning, Jesus suddenly begins walking with them along the road. The gospel tells us, however, that “their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.” I began to reflect on that little sentence, “their eyes were ..read more

The Israelites´ Question Last Sunday´s first reading, from the book of Exodus, ended with a question that has stayed with me all The Israelites complained to Moses week. You may remember that in that passage the Israelites were complaining about being pulled out of Egypt into the inhospitable wilderness. The final sentence reads: “The place was called Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled there and tested the Lord, saying, is the Lord, in our midst or not?” For the Israelites, the question was never “Is there a God?“ Or “Does God exist?“ For them the question was always ..read more

I recently finished reading a captivating biography entitled Saint Katharine, the life of Katharine Drexel, by Cordelia Frances Biddle. I knew very little about Katharine Drexel before I read this book and I am now an enthusiastic a devotee of hers. Let me borrow a paragraph or two from the introduction:  "Katharine Drexel underwent an extraordinary transformation, from a pleasure, loving young lady of privilege during the gilded age to a woman passionately committed to aiding and uplifting the poorest of the poor. Born in 1858, she inherited a fortune when her father di ..read more

This Sunday’s Gospel passage is Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration, the vision in which Jesus appears in his double nature as a human and the Son of God. The passage is worth quoting in its entirety: Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for yo ..read more