When breaking into any new territory, organizations send out what is known as an advance team.
McKenna
Playing Favorites? (James 2:1-5)
by Tom McKenna, CM | September 22, 2021 | Formation, Reflections | 1 Comment
I knew a close-knit family of 5 personable children, and as they got older, they would kid their mother about having a favorite.
The Word (Deut 4: 1-8; Jas 1:17-27)
by Tom McKenna, CM | September 8, 2021 | Formation, Reflections | 2 Comments
I remember a heated conversation between a man who was promising something to a woman, and the woman to whom the promise was being made. It ended with her exasperated response, “Those are just words.”
In This Together (Joshua 24; John 6)
by Tom McKenna, CM | August 25, 2021 | Formation, Reflections | 1 Comment
Our believing is not solitary. The quality of one person’s faith spills over into the religious convictions of all the others.
Acquiring A Taste (Ps 34,9; John 6)
by Tom McKenna, CM | August 11, 2021 | Formation, Reflections | 0 Comments
People develop tastes for different things.
Trinitarian Living (John 16: 12-15)
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jun 15, 2022 | Formation, Reflections
The mystery of the Trinity is definitely that: a mystery who’s depth and range we can never come close to penetrating.
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory (Rev. 22: 16; Jn 17: 20-26)
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jun 1, 2022 | Formation, Reflections
The word Glory shows up frequently in the Scriptures, all those praises of God’s Glory and in particular Jesus’ petitions to His Father asking to give the disciples (and all of us) the Glory that the Father has given Him.
The 400th Anniversary of Our Charism
by Tom McKenna, CM | Sep 13, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
A paraphrase of the opening line today from Isaiah reads: “How beautiful are the feet of the one who brings glad tidings, announces peace, carries good news, tells us that our salvation is here and now, and does all this by a life-changing proclamation. And that is,...
What Kind of God?
by Tom McKenna, CM | Aug 30, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
What Kind of God? (Wisdom 12:13-16; Psalm 135) I ask you to think of a particular boss in one of the jobs you’ve had over the years and also to recall the different ways in which you felt that boss regarded you. Did you feel he or she was indifferent to you, was...
Expecting and Seeing
by Tom McKenna, CM | Aug 16, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Expecting and Seeing (Matthew 13:13) Some time ago I went to see a touring art exhibit featuring Monet’s water lilies. Laid out in three big murals that were hung together, it wrapped around the room to give the visitor a sense of being right there at the pond’s edge....
The Vincentian Witness
by Tom McKenna, CM | Aug 2, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
The Vincentian Witness Not that God needs it, but in today's culture do you ever get the urge to stand up for God? A spiritual writer recounted a conversation with a college friend after not seeing him for years. After catching up, the friend told him he had heard the...
Vincentian Meditations – New Vincentian Resource
by Sr. Kieran Kneaves, DC | Jul 21, 2017 | News, Society of St. Vincent de Paul
VINCENTIAN MEDITATIONS Thomas McKenna, C.M. Vincentian Meditations is a Vincentian Family resource of meditations and scriptural reflections rooted in Vincentian spirituality. Fr. Tom McKenna has studied, prayed, preached and written about Vincentian...
Vincent’s Praying-Acting Cycle
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jul 19, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Vincent’s Praying-Acting Cycle Years ago I heard Fr. Robert Maloney say something about St. Vincent de Paul I never forgot. “Hardly have I ever read somebody who could come down on one side of an issue and then 50 pages later say something the exact opposite.” And...
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...