Just as Peter denied Jesus three times, now the risen Lord asks Peter three times, "Do you love me?"

Have you ever watched a herd of animals as they journey toward a destination? It's remarkable that their every move seems to be in sync with the entire group. Nature itself shows us that uniting together in community – as one body – is the way God intended us to behave.

Today's readings focuses on embracing the crosses that God allows into our lives, even while our human nature resists that kind of suffering. We avoid it and anxiously try to change situations that are unpleasant. Yet Jesus Himself modeled for us the transformation and redemption that comes from ...

The readings for the Easter season harken to the first days of Christianity, allowing us to walk in the footsteps of the first Christians as they attempted to follow Christ as part of the young Church.

Place yourself in today's Gospel reading, and imagine being in the room with Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper. Jesus sits up and begins to talk. Listen attentively to his prayer to the Heavenly Father.

In the last night of his life, Jesus prayed specifically for his followers to have unity. He said that, through unity, the disciples would bear a powerful witness to his name. Why, on the darkest night of his life, was he thinking about that? The answer is seen in his example: in unity, there is ...

In today's Gospel reading, we see that God's very life is one of communion. In the Trinity, we see a relationship of giving and receiving, a communion of life and love. God exists as a relationship of Persons. He is Three, and yet the "Lord God is One." How are we to bring this kind of Oneness — ...

The miracle of multiplying five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish to feed five thousand men (and as many as fifteen to twenty thousand people) is one of the most famous in the Gospels. Apart from providing for the physical needs of those present, Jesus also foreshadows the Holy Eucharist. He...

Here we read a shocking account of a woman wrecking a dinner party to show her love to Jesus. To the host and other guests, it was a moment of awkwardness, embarrassment, and completely inappropriate. Yet Jesus affirmed this woman and, if nothing else, shows us that great love is based on great h...

Jesus seeks from the disciples an answer to who he is. First, what are the people saying? Then he wants to know what they think. The answers are a lesson for us to double-check our assumptions about who we think Jesus is--a prophet? A good teacher? A wise man?—against the reality—the Son of the L...

In this Gospel reading, we see Jesus embarking on the most difficult journey of his life. For ten chapters in Luke's Gospel, beginning with chapter 9, Jesus and his disciples are on the road, making their way to the climactic moment in Salvation History. Knowing what He would suffer, Jesus still ...

Evangelization is not a job assigned only to bishops, priests, and religious brothers and sisters. Pope Paul VI insisted that the "task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church." And by "the Church," he meant the Church as a whole—everyone, including the laity. T...

Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan is well-known and often quoted. Yet we often miss how Jesus uses the question "Who is my neighbor?" to upend a rigid and impersonal view of the "Law" of the Jewish people. Through an unlikely her--a member of the Samaritans, who were disdained by the Jews--we s...

This Gospel reading challenges us to remember that being busy for the Lord is not the same as being with him, to sit at his feet and hear him in our hearts. Truly that is the "better part."

Though we often take the "Our Father" for granted, it is good to remember how remarkable and radical it was for Jesus to begin the prayer not with "Almighty God" or "Mighty King" but with the most personal and intimate name: our Father. Through those words we are invited into a relationship as on...

The Old Testament reading reminds us that we can spend our whole lives acquiring things but, in the end, all of our possessions will go to those who haven't worked for them. This sets us up for the Gospel reading, as Jesus addresses a man who wants him to settle a dispute about an inheritance. As...

"For where your treasure is, there also your heart will be." These words of Jesus challenge us to ask ourselves about our real priorities in life. What is most important? One look at how we use our time or spend our money will tells us what is truly important. Then comes the bigger question: do o...

Today's Gospel reading may surprise us. Jesus' words don't seem to fit the peaceful forgive-your-enemies-and-turn-the-other-cheek image of Jesus we might have. In fact, he says quite explicitly that he didn't come to establish peace, but rather, division. What do you think Jesus means by this?

Many of us know the sinking feeling we get when we approach an airline gate, see the closed door, and realize we've missed our flight. Today's Gospel reading takes that one step further and asks us to contemplate what it would be like to miss out on heaven, seeing that door shut to us forever. "T...

It's human nature for us to want places of honor. Yet Jesus challenges us to do the opposite: to seek the "lowest place." While many in the world compete for worldly prestige and honor, Jesus is asking Christians to outdo one another in the practice of true humility.

What are you willing to give up to follow Jesus? That's the question in today's Gospel. Jesus proclaims that no one is worthy to be called His disciple unless he "hates" those people dearest to him, or renounces his possessions, takes up his cross and follows Jesus to wherever He leads (and if on...

Do you remember a time when you lost something, perhaps a much-valued possession? When we lose something of high value, we search and search until we finally find it. And the discovery brings such a sense of relief. The greater the value of what was lost, the more we rejoice in finding it. In thi...

Many people find today's Gospel passage a little confusing. It tells the story of the dishonest steward who shrewdly foregoes his commission on his master's loans in order to gain favor among those who may be of help to him in the future. While Jesus is not commending dishonesty, he is challengin...

Here Jesus tells the story of a rich man who feasted every single day while a beggar named Lazarus starved to death outside of the gates of the rich man's house. The poor man ends up in the bosom of Abraham while the rich man ends up in Hades. There is a double lesson here about how we use our ti...