Our believing is not solitary. The quality of one person’s faith spills over into the religious convictions of all the others.
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?
Acquiring A Taste (Ps 34,9; John 6)
by Tom McKenna, CM | Aug 11, 2021 | Formation, Reflections
People develop tastes for different things.
“Come Apart For A While …” (Mk. 6:30)
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jul 28, 2021 | Formation, Reflections
There’s a scene in chapter 6 of Mark’s gospel which has special appeal to anyone who has ever been caught up in an over-busy, fast paced life.
The Right Focus
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...
You Are Somebody
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...
Wonderful News. Blessed Are Those…
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...
What do I do, Lord? Gospel/Vincentian Discernment
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jun 8, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
“What Do I Do, Lord?” Gospel/Vincentian Discernment (Acts 1; John 15) There’s what you might call a woman’s quip about the man supposedly being the one who pursues the woman. It runs, “He chased her and he chased her and he chased her – until she caught him!” You...
St. Louise: Moving Toward Love
by Tom McKenna, CM | May 25, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
St. Louise: Moving Toward Love (Is. 58: Mt. 25) There’s a famous quote attributed to Mark Twain: When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much...
The Saints as Bibliography
by Tom McKenna, CM | May 11, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
The Saints as Bibliography Acts 4:8 There’s a writer who characterizes the lives of the saints as “bibliographic entries onto the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.” A bibliography: a series of additions to the one story; i.e., variations on how Jesus’ story plays...
Moving Toward “I Believe” John 10:27-30
by Tom McKenna, CM | Apr 27, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
First, some scene-setting. You’re there with these other disciples, and this Jesus person is right in front of you looking you in the eye. He’s in the process of making this claim: “I and God are one. What you hear coming from my mouth is coming from God’s mouth.” And...
The Faces of God
by Tom McKenna, CM | Apr 13, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
The Faces of God John 8:14 I once came across a psychological test aiming to measure a person’s trust in life or fear of it, life understood in its most general sense as existence or reality. It was getting at the question, “Down at your instinctual level, do...
“Hazy, Clearer, That’s It.” An Emmaus Pattern of Discipleship
by Elizabeth Astridge | Mar 30, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
“Hazy, Clearer, That’s It.” An Emmaus Pattern of Discipleship (Lk 24:13-35) Apologies if this opening metaphor doesn’t catch the profundity of this wonderful conversion story of the two disciples on the Emmaus road. But… You’re in the eye doctor’s office and sitting...