This thread of “Stop, Look and Go” winds through the words and actions of this Feast of Epiphany.
McKenna
Solidarity – in Life, Death, and New Life (Mark 14:1-15:47)
by Tom McKenna, CM | April 17, 2024 | Formation, Reflections | 1 Comment
A remark I once overheard: “I don’t mind suffering when nobody knows about it – as long as somebody knows about it!”
John 3:16 – Read It!
by Tom McKenna, CM | April 3, 2024 | Formation, Reflections | 2 Comments
If you’ve watched any sports events over the last decades, you’ve seen banners held high, calling attention to a famous passage in John’s Gospel.
A Closer Walk (John 2:13-25)
by Tom McKenna, CM | March 20, 2024 | Formation, Reflections | 0 Comments
Early in St. John’s gospel, we see Jesus resolutely striding into the outer courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple, a space bordering on what the Jewish people acknowledged to be God’s own Dwelling place.
Gratitude: The Key (1 Cor. 9: 16-19; Mk.1:29-39)
by Tom McKenna, CM | March 6, 2024 | Formation, Reflections | 2 Comments
A question: what is it that allows people to keep on giving? What is it that motivates someone who isn’t receiving any reward or payment to continue being generous?
Ready to See (Luke 3:1-6; Phil 1:9-10)
by Tom McKenna, CM | Dec 15, 2021 | Formation, Reflections
What the teacher had done was prepare him to see. She had given him a way to notice more of what was there.
Intertwining Worlds (John 18: 33-37)
by Tom McKenna, CM | Dec 1, 2021 | Formation, Reflections
More than most any other, the feast of Christ the King immerses us in this swirling dilemma of negotiating worlds.
To Be A Gospel Sign
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jul 5, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
To Be A Gospel Sign (John 6:30) In John’s gospel, the crowd in Capernaum asks Jesus, “What sign can you do for us?” To catch the full meaning here, it’s important to know John’s special use of the word ‘sign.’ He doesn’t mean it in the ordinary sense of one thing that...
The Feast of the Holy Trinity: Come On In
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jun 21, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
“Come on In” (Ex 34, 2 Cor 13, John 3:16) The Feast of the Holy Trinity is an especially daunting one for the preacher. How even to touch on it, this Mystery of mysteries? A tentative step is by way of the imagination, and so I ask you to put yourself imaginatively...
Emmaus and The Eucharist
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jun 7, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Emmaus and The Eucharist (Lk 24:13-35) Many people’s favorite story in the New Testament is the one of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It contains so much of everyone’s experience of what it is to believe -- and certainly touches on the belief of a...
Past Filling Present (I Corinthians 15:1-2)
by Tom McKenna, CM | May 24, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Past Filling Present (I Corinthians 15:1-2) At this jubilee time we come to celebrate so many years of Vincentian service and gospel witness, years that number up into the hundreds. And as with any anniversary it’s a time to look back to all that’s happened, but also...
Framing The Scene
by Tom McKenna, CM | May 10, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Framing The Scene (John 11:1-45) I remember a wise person once telling me that there’s no such thing as an un-interpreted fact. Everything you see out there you see through some kind of frame, some angle of approach that not only affects how you see, but more...
Letting Truth Appear
by Tom McKenna, CM | Apr 26, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Letting Truth Appear (John 8:31-42) It’s not often I get stunned by the cover of a magazine, but the one on Time in late March accomplished that. In dark letters set against a darker background was the question, “Is Truth Dead?” The phrase caught a feeling I only half...
The Defining Backdrop
by Tom McKenna, CM | Apr 12, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
The Defining Backdrop (Gen. 17:5-9; Jn. 17) In the middle of Genesis, we come across the classic phrasing of a central theme running all through both Testaments of the bible, the Covenant. After telling Abraham He will make him the father of nations, Yahweh says, “I...
Vincentian Discernment: Following The Leader
by Tom McKenna, CM | Mar 29, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Vincentian Discernment: Following The Leader (Genesis 11:1-9) One of the keys to the story of the tower of Babel is the contrast in it between two lines of thought, one in the incident itself and the other coming a few chapters later in Genesis. In the first the...
Gospel Stretching: Wideness
by Tom McKenna, CM | Mar 15, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Gospel Stretching (Mark 6:1-6) There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the Sea. So begins the famous hymn written by Frederick Faber two centuries ago. Freeing and refreshing and life-giving and promising as it sounds, wideness can...