Reflections on the 4th Sunday after Easter

Last Sunday’s lessons emphasized the tension between the Risen Christian and the world in which he is a “stranger and pilgrim.” Today we learn that unworldliness is not an unreasoning opposition, but a necessity for those who belong to a “Kingdom not of this world.” We are the world’s nonconformists because we are God’s conformists, and because to love the world as it is opposed to God and His Truth is to hate the Father. The Sunday of nonconformity is therefore followed by a Sunday of conformity.

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Reflections on Passion Sunday

On Passion Sunday, we enter the final two weeks of Lent, which the Church has named “Passiontide,” or “The Season of the Passion.” During these two weeks, the Church’s ancient Lenten course reaches its climax as we contemplate our Lord Jesus Christ’s death for us on the Cross.  As much as it is humanly possible, and with the supernatural help of God’s grace, we are meant to let nothing in this world divert our attention from our Savior’s Passion and death as we prepare to celebrate His Resurrection.

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Reflections on the Third Sunday in Lent

I suspect that most people would likely consider St. Antony to be a little crazy – selling all that he had, giving it to the poor, and deciding to live by himself in the Egyptian desert, struggling there to find out what it took to live out the teachings of the Gospel in thought, word, and deed. But in fact, St. Antony had decided that righteousness was an end worth pursuing in itself.

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