THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for January 24th, 2014Memorial of St. Francis de Sales Liturgical texts here WHAT the Church needs most today, said Pope Francis, “is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful… I see the church as a field hospital after battle.” [1]cf. americamagazine.org, […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for January 23rd, 2014 Liturgical texts here ONE of the giants of our time whose head has grown extraordinarily large is narcissism. In a word, it is self-absorption. One could even argue that this has now become self-worship, or what I call “iWorship.” St. Paul gives a […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for January 20th, 2014Memorial of St. Sebastian Liturgical texts here GOD is doing something new. And we have to pay attention to this, to what the Holy Spirit is doing. It is time to let go of our expectations, understanding, and security. The winds of change are […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for January 16th, 2014 Liturgical texts here IT looked like the perfect comeback. The Israelites had just been soundly defeated by the Philistines, and so the first reading says they came up with a brilliant idea: Let us fetch the ark of the LORD from Shiloh that […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for January 10th, 2014 Liturgical texts here Artist Unknown THERE has been a lot of teaching on evangelization in this week’s reflections, but it all comes down to this: letting the message of Christ’s love penetrate, challenge, change, and transform you. Otherwise, the imperative of evangelizing will […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for January 8th, 2014 Liturgical texts here Christ Walking on Water, Julius von Klever PART of a reader’s response to yesterday’s Now Word, Love Beyond the Surface: What you said is very true… But I think the sole focus of the Church since Vatican II has been […]
THERE are many hopeful things developing in the Church, most of them quietly, still very much hidden from view. On the other hand, there are many troubling things on the horizon of humanity as we enter 2014. These too, though not as hidden, are lost on most people whose source of information remains […]
HE did not wait for a castle. He didn’t hold out for a perfected people. Rather, He came when we least expected Him… when all He could be offered was a humble greeting and abode. And so, it is appropriate this night that we hear the angel’s greeting: “Do not be afraid.” [1]Luke […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for December 19th, 2013 Liturgical texts here The attack on a group of men praying outside a Cathedral, St. Juan Argentina I recently watched the film Prisoners, a story about the abduction of two children and the attempts of the fathers and police to find them. As […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for December 18th, 2013 Liturgical texts here WHEN Joseph learned that Mary was “found with child”, today’s Gospel says he set about to “divorce her quietly.” How many today quietly “divorce” themselves from the Mother of God! How many say, “I can go to straight to Jesus. Why […]
First snow in Cairo, Egypt in 100 years, AFP-Getty Images SNOW in Cairo? Ice in Israel? Sleet in Syria? For several years now, the world has watched as natural earth events ravage various regions from place to place. But is there a link to what is also happening in society en masse: the […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for December 12th, 2013 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Liturgical texts here (Selected: Rev 11:19a, 12:1-6a, 10ab; Judith 13; Luke 1:39-47) Jump for Joy, by Corby Eisbacher SOMETIMES when I’m speaking at conferences, I will look into the crowd and ask them, “Do you want to fulfill […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for December 11th, 2013 Liturgical texts here MANY people define personal happiness as being mortgage free, having plenty of money, vacation time, being esteemed and honored, or achieving big goals. But how many of us think of happiness as rest?
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for December 7th, 2013Memorial of St. Ambrose Liturgical texts here All the Lonely People, by Emmanuel Borja IF there were ever a time when, as we read in the Gospel, people are “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd,” it is our time, on so many levels. […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for December 4th, 2013 Liturgical texts here THE lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute… these are the ones who gathered around the feet of Jesus. And today’s Gospel says, “he cured them.” Minutes before, one could not walk, another could not see, one could not work, […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS for December 3rd, 2013Memorial of St. Francis Xavier Liturgical texts here ISAIAH gives such a consoling vision of the future that one could be forgiven for suggesting it is a mere “pipe dream.” After the purification of the earth by “the rod of [the Lord’s] mouth, and […]
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGSfor November 30th, 2013Feast of St. Andrew Liturgical texts here Crucifixion of St. Andrew (1607), Caravaggio GROWING up at a time when Pentecostalism was strong in Christian communities and on television, it was common to hear evangelical Christians quote from today’s first reading from Romans: If you confess […]
FROM time to time, I receive letters from readers asking where is the hope?… please give us a word of hope! While it’s true that words can sometimes bring a certain hope, the Christian understanding of hope goes far, far deeper than the “assurance of a positive outcome.” It is true that several […]
Young Woman Sweeping, Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916) I AM guessing that most of my readers feel that they are not holy. That holiness, saintliness, is in fact an impossibility in this life. We say, “I am too weak, too sinful, too frail to ever rise to the ranks of the righteous.” We read […]
WHEN I awoke this morning, an unexpected and bizarre cloud hung over my soul. I sensed a strong spirit of violence and death in the air all around me. As I drove into town, I took my Rosary out, and invoking the name of Jesus, prayed for God’s protection. It took me about […]
St. Francis, by Michael D. O’Brien THERE is something stirring in my heart… no, stirring I believe in the whole Church: a quiet counter-revolution to the current Global Revolution underway. It is a Franciscan Revolution…
THE greatest expression of Christ’s love was not the Sermon on the Mount or even the multiplication of the loaves. It was on the Cross. So too, in The Hour of Glory for the Church, it will be the laying down of our lives in love that will be our crown.
Dear Mark, God forgive the USA. Normally I would begin with God Bless the USA, but today how could any of us ask him to bless what is happening here? We are living in a world that is growing more and more dark. The light of love is fading, and it takes […]
IMAGINE a small child, who has just learned to walk, being taken into a busy shopping mall. He is there with his mother, but does not want to take her hand. Every time he begins to wander, she gently reaches for his hand. Just as quickly, he pulls it away and continues to dart […]
Artist Unknown I WANT to conclude my thoughts on the “era of peace” based on my letter to Pope Francis in hopes that it will benefit at least some who are fearful of falling into the heresy of Millenarianism. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape […]
Nearing Midnight… ACCORDING to the revelations Jesus gave to St. Faustina, we are on the threshold of the “day of justice”, the Day of the Lord, after this “time of mercy”. The Church Fathers compared the Day of the Lord to a solar day (see Faustina, and the Day of the Lord). A […]
THE Gospel calls us to share our possessions with one another, particularly the poor—a voluntary dispossession of our goods and our time. However, the anti-gospel calls for a sharing of goods that flows, not from the heart, but from a political system that controls and distributes wealth according to the whims of the […]
Birth/Death, Michael D. O’Brien WITHIN only a week of his elevation to the Seat of Peter, Pope Francis I has already given the Church his first encyclical: the teaching of Christian simplicity. There is no document, no pronouncement, no publication—just the powerful witness of an authentic life of Christian poverty. With nearly […]
AS I read Pope Francis’ installation homily, I couldn’t help but think of my little encounter with the Blessed Mother’s alleged words six days ago while praying before the Blessed Sacrmament. Sitting in front of me was a copy of Fr. Stefano Gobbi’s book To the Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons, messages that have […]
GOD wants to slow us down. More than that, He wants us to rest, even in chaos. Jesus never rushed to His Passion. He took the time to have a last meal, a last teaching, an intimate moment of washing another’s feet. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He set aside time to pray, […]
The “empty” Chair of Peter, St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, Italy THE past two weeks, the words keep rising in my heart, “You have entered dangerous days…” And for good reason. The enemies of the Church are many from both within and without. Of course, this is nothing new. But what is new is the […]
Photo by Oli Kekäläinen First published on April 17th, 2011, I woke up this morning sensing the Lord wanted me to republish this. The main point is at the end, and the need for wisdom. For new readers, the rest of this meditation can also serve as a wake-up call to the seriousness […]
World Youth Day WE are entering a most profound period of purification of the Church and the planet. The signs of the times are all around us as the upheaval in nature, the economy, and social and political stability speaks of a world on the verge of a Global Revolution. Thus, I believe […]
As I asked Our Blessed Mother to guide my writing this morning, immediately this meditation from March 25th, 2009 came to mind: HAVING traveled and preached in over 40 American states and nearly all of Canada’s provinces, I have been afforded a wide-ranging glimpse of the Church on this continent. I have met many […]
Jesus Meets Veronica, by Michael D. O’Brien IT was a noisy hotel. I was eating some lousy take-out, watching some lousy television. So, I turned it off, set the food outside my door, and sat on my bed. I began thinking about a broken-hearted mother I prayed with after my concert the night before… […]
Hope of the Drowning, by Michael D. O’Brien AFTER a talk I gave to a group of university students on what the popes have been saying about the “end times”, a young man pulled me aside with a question. “So, if we are living in the “end times,” what are we supposed to […]
From an American reader in Colorado: I sense in this night’s wind that my country is at the tipping point, that we are about to experience ‘Change’ but it is not what many are expecting, it is not the social transformation that has been slickly advertised and promised this campaign season.
…That evening before he said grace at the dinner table, he placed his hands upon the heads of my brothers and me and prayed the Living Word upon us from Jeremiah 1:4-5… ‘Now the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to The nations.”
I’LL never forget that day. I was praying in my spiritual director’s chapel before the Blessed Sacrament when I heard in my heart the words: Lay hands on the sick and I will heal them. I trembled in my soul. I suddenly had images of devout little women with doilies on their heads […]
On the first Friday of this month, also the Feast day of St. Faustina, my wife’s mother, Margaret, passed away. We are preparing for the funeral now. Thanks to all for your prayers for Margaret and the family. As we watch the explosion of evil all over the world, from the most shocking blasphemies […]
“Flight Into Egypt”, Michael D. O’Brien Joseph, Mary, and the Christ Child camp in the desert at night as they flee to Egypt. The stark surroundings accentuate their plight, the danger they are in, the darkness of the world. As the mother nurses her child, the father stands watch and plays gently on a flute, […]
FAITH is the oil which fills our lamps and prepares us for Christ’s coming (Matt 25). But how do we attain this faith, or rather, fill our lamps? The answer is through prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need… —Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), n.2010 Many people begin the new year making […]
From the XIII Station of the Cross, by Fr Pfettisheim Chemin “WOULD you pray over me?” she asked, as I was about to leave their home where she and her husband took care of me during my mission there in California several weeks ago. “Of course,” I said. She sat down in a chair […]
THERE is much on my heart to write and speak about in the days ahead that is serious and important in the big scheme of things. In the meantime, Pope Benedict continues to speak lucidly and candidly about the future the world faces. It is no surprise that he is echoing the warnings of […]
First published June 1st, 2007… vacuum has been created in the souls of the youth generation—whether in China or America—by an onslaught of propaganda which centers on self-fulfillment, rather than on God. Our hearts are made for Him, and when we do not have God—or we refuse Him entry—something else takes His place. […]
As more and more people are waking up to the growing persecution of the Church, this writing addresses why, and where it’s all heading. First published December 12th, 2005, I have updated the preamble below… I will take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower, and look forth to […]