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  Saturday – 5 th Week of Lent Gospel – John11:45-56 Can’t We All Just Get Along?   Caiaphas’ House, Jerusalem Let’s face it – at times, we all get aggravated with each other.   And lately, we only have to read the paper or watch the news to see how often people bicker and argue and, at times, literally explode in rage.  Maybe it's the long TSA lines at the airport or that heated political 'discussion'.   We all know what irritates our little brother/sister and yet we do it anyway.   I knew exactly what buttons to push to send my sister, for instance, over the edge and all my siblings knew exactly what to do to set me off.    Was it messy?   Did we get in trouble?   Of course!   And yet we did it anyway! But it’s something quite different to actually band together to deliberately plot against someone.   We all know what it’s like to be ganged-up-on, to be picked on not by a single person but by a whole group of pe...
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  Friday – 5 th Week of Lent Gospel – John10:31-42 One of Those Days Tennessee Sunrise Jesus did not have a good day!   The Jews and Pharisees continue to debate (argue) with Him.   They remain stubborn and unconvinced that He is anything but a troublemaker and a blasphemer.   They refuse to really listen to His words.   They become so upset that they pick up stones to stone Him to death.   Through it all, Jesus remains calm and tries to ‘reason’ with them.   But nothing works.   In the end, they try to arrest Him and He flees out of the city.   You have to imagine how frustrated and heart-sick He must be – they just won’t listen and believe!   They want Him dead and He knows that time is coming very soon.   So He retreats out of the city to a familiar place, to the place where John baptized, where Jesus was baptized, where His public life and mission really began.   You have to imagine that, in some ways, this was a q...
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Thursday – 5th Week in Lent Gospel – John 8:51-59 Kill the Messenger? Boat Church, Magdala Sit down!   We need to talk!   Uh oh!   This is not going to go well.   Whether it’s our boss (my office, NOW!) or our parents (we are not happy), when those words happen, we know this is NOT a time for good news!   Something bad is coming!   Let’s face it, nobody likes to hear bad news; nobody likes to hear the honest truth.   We’d rather stop up our ears and pretend we aren’t listening rather than accept the news that maybe, just maybe, we aren’t as perfect as we think or that our beliefs are not in line with the truth!   We either blind ourselves to the truth or we lash out at the person speaking the truth. In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues to debate with the Pharisees.   And He says in very plain language, I AM the Son of God.   And the Jews’ reaction?   Kill the messenger!   They pick up stones to throw at Him. They...
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  Wednesday – Feast of the Annunciation Gospel – Luke 1:26-38 YES! Confirmation 2026 I was back in Chicago this week and, while there were a number of tasks I was there to take care of, one stood out as the most important – deaconing the Confirmation Mass for 37 8 th graders at St. Robert Bellarmine Church, many of them I have known since they were 4 th graders whom I trained and mentored as altar servers.   What made this Rite of Confirmation so very special was that 2 of them asked me to be their sponsor.   What an honor!   What a blessing!   Standing there with my hand on their right shoulder, presenting them to Bishop Sullivan, watching them be anointed with chrism and sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit!   It made me so proud not just that they were saying ‘YES’ to this Sacrament of Confirmation, but that they knew and understood the meaning of their ‘YES’. They weren’t just going through the motions; they weren’t just following a family ...
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