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  Tuesday – Memorial of St. Leo the Great Gospel – Luke 17-7-10 Service With A Smile Church of Dormition, Jerusalem 5 years ago, Ginger and I had a pretty consistent routine.   Every Sunday night we would sit down and look at the calendar for the week.   The goal?   To see if there were any nights when we would both be home for dinner!   Most weeks that translated to one night, maybe two if we were lucky.   Otherwise, it was dinner for one or dinner on the run as we navigated various meetings, services, RCIA, Baptismal Prep, etc.   And that doesn’t even include all that we did as spouses, as grandparents and as caregivers for her elderly mom and dad – cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping and shuttling her parents to doctor appointments. Nowadays, the routine is very different.   We take it day by day, no more long-range prep.   We get up, assess our aches and pains and only then do we make decisions on how best to take care of each oth...
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  Monday – Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica Gospel – John 2:13-22 Temples of God The Western Wall, Jerusalem We celebrate today the Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome.   Dedicated in 324 AD, the Basilica is the cathedral of Rome, the official seat of the Bishop of Rome and the mother of all churches throughout the world. It is the first public building granted to Christians as a worship site by Constantine.   It is quite unusual that we have a feast day honoring an object, as opposed to a person.   I can only think of one other – Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. Today’s Gospel reflects on another religious object – the Temple in Jerusalem.    It was the center of Jewish life at the time of Jesus; it was a place to gather and worship for all major feasts and celebrations.   The very life of a Jew revolved around this magnificent house of prayer and sacrifice.   From birth to coming of age to remembrance of P...
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  32 nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Gospel – Matthew25:1-13 Do I Know You? Basilica of Annunciation, Nazareth An old man has been standing in line at the pearly gates for so long, when he gets to the front, he can't remember his name for St. Peter to look up in the Big Book. Peter doesn't know what to do, so he gets Jesus to help him figure it out. Jesus says "Tell us about your life, maybe that will jog your memory." The old man says "Well, I only had one child, a son." Jesus smiles and says "Heh, I was an only child too. Go on."   The man says "I was a... some kind of wood-worker or carpenter... something like that." Jesus is like "Huh, that's another coincidence. Anything else you can remember?"   The man shakes his head a bit and says "You may not believe this, but my son - he was brought to life through a miracle!"   Jesus' jaw drops, he smiles, and tears come to his eyes, "Fath...
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