Reflections

Each year, St. John’s University organizes a program around the Vincentian Chair of Social Justice (VCSJ). 

In the middle of the Acts of the Apostles (c. 15), we find one of the first issues of exclusion in the young Christian community.

One of the great blessings of the Easter Season is the way in which the church directs our attention to the Acts of the Apostles in both the weekday and the Sunday readings.

In the readings of the Easter Season, it sometimes seems that the two positions of “seeing” and “believing” are mutually exclusive. 

The cross stands at the center of our reflection in these days. Lent summoned us to follow Jesus to the Jerusalem that held the cross on which he would die. The Triduum draws us to the foot of the cross. Easter leads us away to the new life won on the cross. An empty...

A host of lessons arises within the story of the Prodigal Son.  It continues to challenge and suggest as we reflect and recognize ourselves in the text.

For me, the word most frequently invoked as one reflects upon and participates in the call to synodality in the current Church is “listening.” 

Sometimes when I read the Scriptures, a word pops out for me in a way that it has not done before.

If you have ever seen Fiddler on the Roof, you may remember the prayer of Tevye.