“Taking in the news.” It can refer to events both good and bad, taking in the news of a baby’s birth, for instance, or at the other end, receiving word of a loved one’s passing.
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by Tom McKenna, CM | May 19, 2021 | Formation, Reflections | 0 Comments
When we meet love in our lives, we are experiencing The Spirit.
by Tom McKenna, CM | May 5, 2021 | Formation, Reflections | 0 Comments
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.
by Tom McKenna, CM | April 21, 2021 | Formation, Reflections | 2 Comments
“Handing on the tradition” is a phrase often connected with matters of faith.
by Tom McKenna, CM | April 7, 2021 | Formation, Reflections | 4 Comments
Where are the assurances that these claims about Jesus rising to new life have any substance?
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jan 26, 2022 | Formation, Reflections
“Taking in the news.” It can refer to events both good and bad, taking in the news of a baby’s birth, for instance, or at the other end, receiving word of a loved one’s passing.
by Tom McKenna, CM | Jan 12, 2022 | Formation, Reflections
A gift – something given over freely, with good will and coming not from obligation but from good will and esteem. It raises the question: of all the gifts to receive, which would be the most valuable and precious?
by Tom McKenna, CM | Dec 29, 2021 | Formation, Reflections
This thread of “Stop, Look and Go” winds through the words and actions of this Feast of Epiphany.
by Tom McKenna, CM | May 24, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Past Filling Present (I Corinthians 15:1-2) At this jubilee time we come to celebrate so many years of Vincentian service and gospel witness, years that number up into the hundreds. And as with any anniversary it’s a time to look back to all that’s happened, but also...
by Tom McKenna, CM | May 10, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Framing The Scene (John 11:1-45) I remember a wise person once telling me that there’s no such thing as an un-interpreted fact. Everything you see out there you see through some kind of frame, some angle of approach that not only affects how you see, but more...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Apr 26, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Letting Truth Appear (John 8:31-42) It’s not often I get stunned by the cover of a magazine, but the one on Time in late March accomplished that. In dark letters set against a darker background was the question, “Is Truth Dead?” The phrase caught a feeling I only half...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Apr 12, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
The Defining Backdrop (Gen. 17:5-9; Jn. 17) In the middle of Genesis, we come across the classic phrasing of a central theme running all through both Testaments of the bible, the Covenant. After telling Abraham He will make him the father of nations, Yahweh says, “I...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Mar 29, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Vincentian Discernment: Following The Leader (Genesis 11:1-9) One of the keys to the story of the tower of Babel is the contrast in it between two lines of thought, one in the incident itself and the other coming a few chapters later in Genesis. In the first the...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Mar 15, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Gospel Stretching (Mark 6:1-6) There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the Sea. So begins the famous hymn written by Frederick Faber two centuries ago. Freeing and refreshing and life-giving and promising as it sounds, wideness can...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Mar 1, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Talk, Speech, Deed (1 Cor 2: 1-5) In one of the many commentaries on the quality of the rhetoric in the recent campaign, I came across a distinction I had never thought of – the difference between talk and speech. Talk, whatever comes to you on the spot, or from off...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Feb 15, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
Repenting From Fear to Trust (Matthew 4: 17) In Matthew’s fourth chapter we come across what you might call the very first word in Jesus' very first sermon, Repent! Which means at base “to turn around.” And so the gospel, “From that time on, Jesus began to...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Feb 1, 2017 | Formation, Reflections
A Family Gift: Practical Integrity (Mk 3:1-6) If you were hired as the Public Relations director for the Jerusalem Pharisees and Scribes mentioned in Mark, you wouldn’t want this section of the gospel to get too much circulation. In their confrontations with Jesus,...