McKenna
Playing Favorites? (James 2:1-5)
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)
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)
Our believing is not solitary. The quality of one person’s faith spills over into the religious convictions of all the others.
Not Just Interesting, But Moving
“Not Just Interesting, But Moving” (Exodus 3; Psalm 103) There’s a difference between things that are interesting and things that are intriguing, between things which make us curious and things which actually move us. I can pick up a score of a symphony and...
St. Louise and the tax collector in the back of the room
One of the famous Gospel characters is the publican, the tax collector in the back of the room. Jesus portrays him as the ideal worshipper, the best kind of pray-er. He knows how to come before God; he does it right. Not full of himself, not holding up accomplishments...
Hearing The Word in Pressured Times
Hearing The Word in Pressured Times (Lk. 5:1-11) Here are some things to note in this Gospel about Jesus getting himself involved in a fishing expedition with Peter and his friends. For one thing, there’s Peter’s state of mind. He’s exhausted. All night on the...
Formation: Learning to See God’s Presence
“Formation:” Learning to See God’s Presence (Mk. 3:7-12) One way of looking at this story of healing in Mark is to see it as a case of the wrong people discerning the right things. On the one hand, you’ve got these hoards of people following Jesus, and in so dense...
Who is Family – Fr. Tom McKenna, CM
“Who is Family?” (Mk 3:31-5) To better digest this story about Jesus’ question, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” I ask you to try a little exercise in imagination. You’re at a family wedding, brothers and sisters, mother and father, cousins and children and...
Getting in the Spirit
Father Tom McKenna offers the following reflection Getting “In the Spirit” (Samuel 18; Romans 8) The story of David and Goliath is set inside a larger narrative about the fall of Saul and the rise of David. And the difference between these two is that one, Saul,...
Hannah’s Prayer – Fr. Tom McKenna
Fr. Tom Mckenna offers this reflection on Hannah’s Prayer (I Samuel 1:9-20) In a talk on the spirituality of the Twelve Steps, the speaker told a story of a woman who was being swept along in a powerful ocean current. She was a swimmer and so at first wasn’t...
Reading the Signs: Dark or Light?
In this reflection, written for a celebration of the feast of the Epiphany Fr. Tom McKenna offers thoughts on how do I understand this particular story -- how am I reading the signs -- that is so outside my usual way of looking at the world? You could look on this...
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...