Gospel Reflections for Challenging Times

  Wednesday– 7th Day in Christmas Octave (New Year’s Eve) Gospel – John 1:1-18 Past, Present and Future Latin / Greek, Church of Dormition   Today’s Gospel – the opening chapter of the Gospel of John – really takes me back in time, all the way to my freshman year in college in the Seminary.   It was a tough academic year; we were taking 3 different languages at once: French, Latin and Greek.   And because it used a completely different set of written characters, Greek was the most difficult to not only learn but retain.   I can remember we all crafted homemade flash cards for vocabulary, and we carried them around with us everywhere.   We had to constantly refresh ourselves and test ourselves; otherwise we lost it so quickly. Which brings me to today’s Gospel.   I have a special fondness for these verses; they were one of the first translations we ever tackled.   Even today I can still rattle off the first couple of verses in Greek fro...

  Tuesday – 6th Day in Christmas Octave Gospel – Luke 2:36-40 Honor Your Elders Western Wall, Jerusalem I wonder sometimes if we ever truly appreciate and cherish our elders, our grandparents and great-grandparents.   Growing up, my grandmother lived right next door to us. And yet it was always such a struggle for my mom to encourage us (me) to just walk over and spend time with Mom Mom.   As a kid, I suppose I felt I had better things to do.   In the summertime, there would always be a couple of weeks when my great-grandmother would come and stay with my grandma.   We would go over, offer our greetings and then quickly high-tail it outside to play.   Oh how I wish I could recover/relive those moments.   You see, my great-grandma was the daughter of Dr. Samuel Mudd.   Can you imagine how many questions I would have today and how many stories she could have shared and I could have passed on to my own grandkids!   Such a lost opportunit...

  Monday – 5 th Day in Octave of Christmas Gospel – Luke 2:22-35 Ho Ho Hum! Basilica of Annunciation, Nazareth It is now 4 days since we celebrated Christmas.   And we have now reached the moment that all parents dread!   The presents are all opened and strewn around the house.   Bits of wrapping paper and ribbon are still scattered on the floor.   The shiny new-ness of the toys has begun to dim and many lay ignored and forgotten under the tree.   The Christmas lights seem to have faded a bit and the tree is beginning to shed its needles.   This is the day when our kids utter those unfortunately familiar words – I AM BORED!!   What happened to Christmas?   What happened to the joy and wonder?   Has it really faded all that quickly?   Have the presents and toys suddenly lost their appeal?     Does the excitement and mystery last only a day and then we move on? Today’s Gospel tells us of Mary and Joseph going up to ...