U.S. President Abraham Lincoln once said: “It is better to remain silent and to be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt!”
In many ways, this is a variation on the words of the sage Ben Sirach in today’s first reading: “Do not praise someone before they speak, for this is the way in which people are tested.” In fact, the connecting thread running through what seem to be very disparate, disconnected readings today is this notion of integrity: avoiding hypocrisy and hasty judgments, bearing witness to the truth by living a life in which there is coherence between our beliefs and values, our words and our deeds. This is the way in which our lives become fruitful, a source of goodness for ourselves and for those around us. Or in simpler terms: “to walk the talk.”
This morning, about 75 people coming from many of our English-speaking parishes gathered together to reflect on what it means to be on a mission, to be doing the Lord’s work together.
This Sunday we begin the liturgical season of Ordinary Time. For many Sundays in this lectionary cycle (Cycle C), our readings will be taken from the Gospel of Luke. Occasionally, however, we will read from John's Gospel.
If there is one day in the year when skepticism melts away and the believer inside each of us resurfaces, that day is probably Christmas. Even in this secular world, where it is easy for the story of the birth of Christ to get lost in the crush of parties and shopping, of pre-Christmas sales and
We are going through difficult times in our world: we have only to switch on the TV or go on line, and we are assaulted by reports of war, of natural disasters (forest fires, volcanoes, tropical storms), of displaced peoples and refugees seeking a safe haven, of political corruption and corporate
St. Monica's Parish