Lead in: In Mark 6:7-13, Jesus sends the twelve out on their first mission. In this passage, Jesus can be likened to a coach givinginstructions to his team before they take to the field. “Your equipment provides you with all the protection you need. You are the...

Lead in: When Jesus returned to his hometown and was invited to speak, he stole the show.The people couldn’t believe this was the same person whom they’d known as a little boy. But then their insecurity took over and they closed their hearts to him. When our minds are...

Lead in: In Mark 5, two seemingly unrelated stories are woven together with a common thread of trust and faith. Out of love for his daughter, Jarius puts aside his position in the community and approaches Jesus to ask that he lay his hands on his daughter. A woman...

Lead in: In Mark 4, in the midst of a violent storm at sea, the panicky disciples are paralyzed by fear. Their boat is taking on water, and it looks like the swell of huge waves is about to overtake them. Amazingly Jesus, the sound sleeper he is, is oblivious to the...

Lead in: Ezekiel 17:22-24 speaks of the towering Lebanon cedar. In Mark 4, Jesus speaks of the gangly mustard bush. The Lebanon cedar of the Middle East is the equivalent to the mighty redwood of California. The mustard bush is the equivalent of the unattractive...

Lead in: In Mark 3:20, we find Jesus in the early part of his ministry, but he was already widely known. So when word got out that Jesus had come back to his hometown, a huge crowdgathered pressing in on him. So much so that he didn’t even have time to eat. Like...

Lead in: In Mark 14, we hear the story of the first Eucharist. Popular Catholic speaker and teacher Scott Hahn says that if the Eucharist is nothing more than a meal, then Christ’s death on the cross at Calvary was nothing more than an execution. True, the Eucharist...

Lead in: For centuries, theologians have attempted to articulate who God is. No matter how profound or articulate or eloquent their description of God, the words fall far short of who God really is. No language can ever fully capture God’s essence. Yet, metaphors help...

Lead in: The story of Elijiah in the Old Testament (I Kings 19:12) reminds us that sometimes God comes to us in the whisper of a “still small voice”. And then at other times God comes to us in a big way that’s hard to miss. That’s what happened at Pentecost. A rush of...

Lead in: “Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.” That is easy for Superman because he has the superhuman powers of a superhero. In Mark 16:15-20, Jesus mentions some of the superhuman feats that...