… we salute and honor all those who enhance our world with the work of their hands.  Although tomorrow, Labor Day is a United States federal holiday, our Catholic tradition teaches that through work, men and women must earn their daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology.  Work means any human activity, whether manual or intellectual, whatever its nature or circumstances; it means any human activity that can and must be recognized as work, in the midst of all the many activities of which we …

The readings this weekend focus our attention on the virtue of humility.  Both the readings of Sirach and the Gospel passage of Luke give us food for thought on how to be more humble.  In a society that seems to be addicted to celebrity, prestige, power and attention, the Word of God asks us to stand out and to stand up for something different.  Undoubtedly, truly being humble people takes work and prayer.  I share below a Litany that may help us in our quest for true and lasting humility.
Litany …

In the passage from Luke’s Gospel this weekend we hear these familiar words from Jesus:
Strive to enter through the narrow gate,for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.  Jesus points out to his listeners, and us, the narrow gate through which all should enter. In this passage, the word “strive” in the Greek can also be translated as “struggle”.   Think about how the meaning of the phrase changes with this alternative translation, “Struggle to enter through the narrow gate …”
Some scholars report that …

By pronouncing the Papal bull Munificentissimus Deus, on 1 November 1950, Pope Pius XII declared infallibly that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was a dogma of the Catholic Faith.
Likewise, the Second Vatican Council taught in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium that “the Immaculate Virgin preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things (n. 59).”
Although today the language would be more pastoral, at the …

The book of Wisdom tells us that the children of Israel were given courage through God’s intervention at Passover. But before that definitive intervention of the Old Covenant, the leap of faith had to be taken by Abraham.  The great faith of Abraham, was also known as great courage: courage to leave his home for the unknown; courage to believe that, in his old age and in Sarah’s barren condition, they would produce a son; courage to believe that, even if Isaac were sacrificed, “God was able to raise men …

In Luke 12, from the mouth of Jesus himself we hear:
Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.
It’s hard to imagine keeping the proper perspective all the time.  I think that our lives probably take some swings where we move closer to one extreme or the other. But at least we are called to keep the balance and perspective in check.
Perhaps it’s one of the effects of original sin that we do not believe on the deepest levels the words …