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  Monday – Feast of St. Bartholomew Gospel - John 1: 45-51 The Journey of Faith Church of Dormition, Jerusalem   I don’t know about you but I am not a fan of walking into new situations or meeting people for the first time; I feel awkward and quite a bit tongue-tied, wondering what to talk about and how they will react to me.   It takes me a while to warm up to them and feel comfortable. Yeah, I know what you’re going to say – you’re a teacher, you’re used to getting up in front of a crowd of strangers, most of them unimpressed, and trying to grab their attention.   But this is different; one on one is more direct, nowhere to hide. We celebrate today the Feast of St. Bartholomew, one of the Twelve.   Most Scripture scholars identify him as the Nathaniel we read about in today’s Gospel, the brother of Philip. We see in this Gospel his first encounter with Jesus.   And while there is that first-time awkwardness, he quickly warms up to Jesus and even...
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  21 st Sunday in Ordinary Time Gospel - Matthew 16:21-27 The Key To Success Keys   (Prayers Please for my Mom who is in the hospital after taking a fall on Friday)   I don’t know if I’m the crazy one or if everyone here has one of these cups sitting around somewhere at home or maybe it’s a drawer or a box in your home.   This cup is filled with keys.    There are house keys and apartment keys, car keys, lock box keys, luggage keys for travel, keys that I don’t even remember what lock they fit.   In a sense, this cup contains a record of my adult life – my first car, my first apartment, our first apartment as husband and wife, the keys we were given when we bought our first home.    There are keys that open doors and keys that lock away and protect valuables.   Keys seem to be a recurring theme in today’s readings.   Eliakim, in the first reading, is given the keys to the House of David the King.   He will control ...
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  Saturday – Queenship of Mary Gospel – Matthew 23:1-12 Back to School My Classroom This has been back to school week, not just for our SRB parish grade school but also for Trinity and St. Patrick High School where I taught for almost 40 years.   Is it a little bittersweet for me?   You bet!   I miss setting up my classroom – all the brain-teasers on my desk, all the world religions ‘stuff’ on the tables and walls, the music playing in the background!   I miss creating my seating charts and wondering if anyone this year will figure out the pattern!   I miss that first day when they get their first dose of crazy projects and tests (and my sense of humor)!   I miss the ‘chair’ and those meditation journeys!   And, most importantly I miss my students (and my altar servers) and the sheer joy I get when I see that moment of enlightenment on their faces when they ‘get it’! There is one line in today’s Gospel that brings that whole teaching expe...
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