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Very rarely do all four Gospel accounts relate an incident in the life of Christ. For example, the multiplication of the loaves is the only miracle reported by all four evangelists. So it becomes …
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4/7/22
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Worshipers alert to the Church’s liturgical calendar might be surprised to see a passage from St. John read at Mass during Sunday cycle III which is dedicated to the writings of St. Luke. The …
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3/31/22
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A recent blurb on Facebook announced that becoming a mother means that you are going to have to worry for the rest of your life. The same is no doubt true of dads. Childhood illnesses, incidents at …
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3/24/22
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If a believer were asked to nominate the most essential Christian virtue, the obvious and most popular answer would no doubt be the virtue of love. After all, St. Paul clearly teaches that love is …
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3/17/22
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Soon after the Second Vatican Council representations of the Risen Christ began to appear conspicuously in Catholic churches in America. Parishioners had become quite accustomed to prominent …
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3/10/22
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Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke all report the temptations of Christ by the devil in their Gospel accounts. St. John’ Gospel narrative favors an already triumphant Christ, master of every …
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3/3/22
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A great joy experienced by some few parish priests was the opportunity to concelebrate Mass with Pope St. John Paul II in his Vatican chapel. Msgr. Barry R.L. Connerton, pastor emeritus of St. …
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2/24/22
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King Saul and King David, mentioned in this coming Sunday’s first reading, were both great men of Jewish history. King Saul was actually the first king of Israel, living ten centuries before …
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2/17/22
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Quite memorable in the Gospel accounts is the lengthy sermon preached “on the mount” to the disciples according to St. Matthew or preached “on a level stretch” to the crowds …
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2/10/22
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Blessed Joachim Fiore was an eleventh century Cistercian abbot who believed that history, like the Holy Trinity, could be expressed in three basic stages: The Age of the Father, corresponding to the …
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2/3/22
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As noted in last week’s Quiet Corner, most of the Scriptural readings at Mass this liturgical year will be taken from St. Luke’s account of Christ’s Good News. Mentioned by St. Paul …
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1/27/22
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From the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century until the Second Vatican Council in the twentieth century — that’s four hundred years — the Gospel passages at Sunday Mass were …
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1/20/22
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St. John the Evangelist is unique among the Gospel writers in that he does not include the actual words of Eucharistic consecration within his Last Supper narrative. “This is my …
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1/13/22
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Mark Twain, rightly celebrated for his quintessential American novels “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn,” also penned the quite English tale entitled “The Prince and …
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1/6/22
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Gift giving is perhaps as old as mankind. Perhaps the devil offering an apple to Eve was the beginning of this widespread practice. The splendid gifts of the Magi to the Infant Christ seem right in …
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12/16/21
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The critical question is this coming Sunday’s Gospel is the practical plea of the Baptist’s followers: “What should we do?” The crowd, like most of mankind, has it backwards. …
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12/9/21
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Although I had a very typical Catholic education for someone growing up in the mid-last century, the Advent wreath was simply not part of my youth. The Sisters of Mercy never lit an Advent wreath at …
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12/2/21
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Bolzano is an Italian Alpine city not far at all from the Austrian border. A recent tour of northern Italy meant Saturday night in this mountain climbers’ and ski enthusiasts’ favored …
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11/25/21
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One of the first victims of the renovations that occurred in Catholic Churches after the Second Vatican Council was the altar rail. Today most new churches are built without any consideration for an …
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11/18/21
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Catholics fond of statues and pictures of medieval male saints like Francis of Assisi and Anthony of Padua and Thomas Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux can easily conclude that all men of that era …
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11/11/21
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