A young man named Tom was a very skilled cabinet-maker, and after several years of working for a home-builder, he decided to go into business on his own. He loved fine woodcrafting, and because of his talent and dedication, he was sure he’d be...
Listen again to this statement taken from the Responsorial Psalm given us on this Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: “The eyes of all look hopefully to you, and you give them their food in due season; you open your hand and satisfy the desire of...
Some years ago an elderly man collapsed on a busy street corner in downtown Brooklyn, and in the ambulance on the way to the hospital he kept calling out for his son. A nurse at the hospital went through his wallet, looking for identification, and...
Imagine there are seven houses on your street. Yours is the one on the corner, and it’s the most valuable one, having an appraisal of $250,000. Two of your neighbors’ homes are worth $200,000; two are worth $180,000, and the other two are worth...
Over the years the pastor of a remote parish befriended a parishioner who had made himself rather wealthy through ingenuity and hard work. The Pastor caught him after Mass one Sunday and said: “Joe, I got the impression that, lately, you stopped...
Americans celebrate the joy of Christmas and the birth of our Savior through giving. Gifts to our families express our belief that the world was saved with the birth of Jesus Christ. Our giving extends beyond our families. Our appreciation is shared...
Last night I learned that dogs have “Do Not Recessisate,” or DNR orders, too. I laughed to myself at the irony: I’ve signed two DNRs for my mother and would not consider it for my two year old dog. People who know me know that I am totally into my...
Every three years we are called upon to meditate and to live by the teaching of this strange yet familiar parable (Mt 20:1-16) that flies in the face of distributive justice: i.e., each one should be getting whatever each one deserves. At first, it...
