When you hear that someone is “acting out” it usually isn’t heard as a compliment.
![Acting Out (Mark 12:38-44)](https://b704496.smushcdn.com/704496/en/files/2016/02/mckenna-tom-reflections-featured-facebook-1.png?lossy=2&strip=1&webp=1)
by Tom McKenna, CM | January 27, 2021 | Formation, Reflections | 0 Comments
God’s Call is a theme that runs all through the Scriptures. Where does God’s call occur and to what does it summon us?
by Tom McKenna, CM | January 13, 2021 | Formation, Reflections | 0 Comments
There’s a phrase which often enough appears in stories having to do with someone coming up against his or her limits.
by Tom McKenna, CM | December 30, 2020 | Formation, Reflections | 0 Comments
The Christmas gospel from St. Luke starts out on a theme of power, the political power of an absolute ruler, Caesar Augustus.
by Tom McKenna, CM | December 18, 2020 | Formation, Reflections | 0 Comments
I read an account of a high school boy who had, as the story title put it, “Made it Easier to be Honest.”
by Tom McKenna, CM | Nov 17, 2021 | Formation, Reflections
When you hear that someone is “acting out” it usually isn’t heard as a compliment.
by Tom McKenna, CM | Nov 3, 2021 | Formation, Reflections
There’s an instinct to idealize the saints as entirely different from the rest of us, off in another league at some unattainable level of holiness and favor with God.
by Tom McKenna, CM | Oct 20, 2021 | Formation, Reflections
Most of us know the image backing the word “scandalize;” i.e., somebody tripping over a stone in the road.
by Tom McKenna, CM | Sep 28, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
Looking Out Through New Eyes (Philemon 9-10, 12-17) Some weeks ago, Mother Teresa was raised to the status of a canonized Saint. And though there are many aspects of her life and spirituality to admire and try to imitate, I pick up on one that comes through in this...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Sep 14, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
Badgering God (Mt 15: 21-28) Recently I came across an interesting take on this incident of the Canaanite woman not letting Jesus up in an argument. I read their interchange as “badgering God for the future.” From many indications it’s clear that in their time, both...
by Famvin Media Resources | Sep 9, 2016 | Formation
It is interesting to look at how our Vincentian practices can serve to turn around the negative impact of a hyper-consumer culture.
by Tom McKenna, CM | Aug 31, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
Formation’s Scratchy Side (Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13) All of us entering this Vincentian Family have to go through what is known as “formation.” Formation: people being formed, shaped, molded – maybe better, being re-molded, re-shaped, and maybe even...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Aug 17, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
Past and Present, Living Through One Another (I John 4:7-16) At a Eucharist honoring the deceased members of the Vincentian Family, I picked up on a verse from the first reading (1 John 4:9). It starts out with the question, “How was God’s love shown to us?” It...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Aug 3, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
“I have seen and so can testify to…” (John 20) So much of the New Testament is about witnessing. “We have seen and testified to…the Eternal life that was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard.” (1 John 1:1-2) In one way...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jul 20, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
The Right Focus (Matthew 6) I came across an interview with a woman violinist who had just completed a concert and gotten rave reviews for it. The interviewer was asking her how she got to be so good, how she developed this great gift of letting the beauty of the...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jul 6, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
“You Are Somebody…” (John 15) (Homily at the Farewell Mass for the departing members of the 2015/16 Vincentian Mission Corps, St. Louis) Jesus confides in His disciples today, “I have told you this, that your joy may be complete.” Or to put it another way: “I...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jun 22, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
“Wonderful News.” Blessed Are Those… Matthew 5 What if we were to take these Beatitude behaviors and attitudes as descriptions of the way things already are in the world, as if we were hearing Jesus giving a kind of analysis of society as it really is? We’d have...