There are actions that in their very enactment communicate more depth and meaning than the words that surround them.
McKenna
Experiencing The Spirit’s Descent (Acts 10: 25-48)
When we meet love in our lives, we are experiencing The Spirit.
Setting Out (Acts 9:1-20)
As far as beginnings go, we’d have to look far and wide to find something more dramatic than the one portrayed in chapter 9 of the Acts of the Apostles: Paul knocked over and blinded on that Damascus road.
Mary and Darkness – Fr. Tom Mckenna reflects
Father Tom McKenna offers this final Advent reflection - Mary and Darkness There’s a verse somewhere in the Advent readings which sets a tone for much of the season. “Over you shall come a great darkness.” If you heard that line standing by itself and out of the...
God’s dreams for us
In "God's dreams for us" Fr. Tom McKenna reflects on a God who wants us to flourish. Advent is a season of dreams: the peaceable Kingdom, exiles coming back home, the web of death pierced through, crooked roads made straight. These are images of Yahweh’s end time that...
A Story that Tells the Teller – McKenna
Sitting around that collection box in the treasury hall and watching the crowd, what story would I tell?
The Way – Christian Code
Fr. Tom McKenna offers a reflection entitled A Christian Code: The Way (Mk 10: 46-52; Jeremiah 31:7-9) In one place or other, most all of us have come across the phrase “code word.” It means some word or phrase that at first seems unimportant, but if...
How do we define ourselves
Fr. Tom McKenna reflects on The Rich Young Man (Mk. 10:17-22) and how we define ourselves in an essay “I …, Therefore I Am” “I …, Therefore I Am” In a philosophy class, a teacher asked, “What is your cogito?” I thought he meant some bone or other body part -- but...
The Encounter Space – Fr. Tom McKenna
In The Encounter Space (Ephesians 2; Luke 6) Fr. Tom McKenna offers this reflection on the space where encounter takes place. Judging from some of Paul’s favorite imagery, he would have lined up closely behind one of Pope Francis’ favorite metaphors, “encounter,”...
Someone Who Knows – Reflection by Fr. Tom McKenna
In his reflection titled Someone Who Knows, Fr. Tom McKenna, reflects on Downton Abbey's 'upstairs-downstairs' structure and someone who knows both sides. (Hebrews 4: 14-16; Mark 10:35-45) In the letter to the Hebrews, and then again in Mark, we come across two...
The God Who Gives Life to All Things
The God Who Gives Life to All Things (1 Timothy, 6:13) New events have a way of opening up doors to riches in the Christian tradition not quite realized before. There’s a line in Timothy’s letter today which gives one instance this process at work, in this case the...
The gift of meaning – T.McKenna
The Gift of Meaning (Lk 10:17ff) from a retreat reflection presented to the Daughters of Charity in Los Altos, California. Have you ever come across people who tell you that life for them has little or no meaning -- or even have you yourself gone through times when...
