Lead in: Given the presence of thieves, bandits, and wolves the good shepherd has a dangerous job. Yet he is willing to lay down his life for his sheep. To make that clear, the phrase “lays down his life” appears five times in John 10:11-18. This good shepherd who...

Lead in: In Luke 24:35, the two disciples recount what had taken place on the way and how Jesus “was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”As he did for his disciples, so Jesus does for us in the breaking of the bread at Eucharist.Prompt: How does Christ...

Lead in: John 20:19-31 takes us to the room where the disciples are holding out. They have locked the door for fear that what happened to Jesus would happen to them. They are struggling to make sense of all that has happened. The one they had followed for the last...

Lead in: The Gospel presents us with concrete tangible signs of Jesus’ resurrection, that Jesus is not dead but alive. In John 20:1-9, we hear how the stone to the tomb has been rolled back. There is no body, it’s missing and the linens are neatly folded in a corner....

Lead in: One tradition has it that the first thing put to writing in the Gospels were the accounts of Jesus’ passion and death. Working backwards in time, the Gospels developed asthe various stories were pieced together, giving us a more complete picture of who Jesus...

Lead in: St. Ignatius had the dream of starting a religious order. But he had the freedom to die for his dream if that’s how it had to be.Prompt: Reflect on something you dreamed of being able to do but were never given the chance to do it. How hard was that to grieve...

Lead in: In 1936, Bob White, Sr., and in 1966 Bob White, Jr., went back to school in the fall after their summer jobs. They both somehow felt different. They couldn’t explain it, butothers could see it. Maybe it was because they were learning to believe in...

Lead in: As the expression goes, pain not is transmitted. We saw that played out in ugly ways in the burning of the cities that occurred after the death of George Floyd.The injustice of the death of an innocent black man led to the injustice of the destruction done to...

Lead in: When Peter saw Jesus transfigured before him on the mountain that day, he thought Jesus was destined for greatness. Jesus was destined for greatness, but not in the way Peter was hoping it’d be. If they were to follow Jesus to glory, it would be a different...

Lead in: In Mark 1:40, we hear of a leper who approached Jesus and begged him,“If you wish you can make me clean.”Moved with compassion, Jesus said to him, “I do wish it. Be made clean.” Prompt: Reflect on a time when, like the leper, you begged God for healing. It...