When you hear that someone is “acting out” it usually isn’t heard as a compliment.
![Acting Out (Mark 12:38-44)](https://b704496.smushcdn.com/704496/en/files/2016/02/mckenna-tom-reflections-featured-facebook-1.png?lossy=2&strip=1&webp=1)
by Tom McKenna, CM | July 24, 2024 | Formation, Reflections | 2 Comments
Images for God — metaphors and visuals that catch something more fundamental and grounded than ideas for God.
by Tom McKenna, CM | July 10, 2024 | Formation, Reflections | 2 Comments
We all know the phrase, “getting to the bottom of it.” It means digging down beneath the outside appearances to the inner core of something
by Tom McKenna, CM | June 26, 2024 | Formation, Reflections | 0 Comments
I remember a man complaining that there was too much dissention in his family. He used a memorable phrase to describe their connections: “In a given month, who’s in and who’s out?”
by Tom McKenna, CM | June 12, 2024 | Formation, Reflections | 4 Comments
The motto on the great seal of the United States is the Latin “E Pluribus Unum.” It’s translated: “Out of the Many, One.”
by Tom McKenna, CM | Nov 17, 2021 | Formation, Reflections
When you hear that someone is “acting out” it usually isn’t heard as a compliment.
by Tom McKenna, CM | Nov 3, 2021 | Formation, Reflections
There’s an instinct to idealize the saints as entirely different from the rest of us, off in another league at some unattainable level of holiness and favor with God.
by Tom McKenna, CM | Oct 20, 2021 | Formation, Reflections
Most of us know the image backing the word “scandalize;” i.e., somebody tripping over a stone in the road.
by Tom McKenna, CM | Oct 26, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
Unchaining The Word Through Memory One short sentence in Paul’s letter to Timothy (2 Tim 2: 10) caught my attention right off, “The word of God is not chained.” Paul himself is in chains, and it’s the contrast here that’s striking him. The Word of God is the opposite...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Oct 12, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
Prayer and Management (Luke 6:12-19) In this section of Luke, we find Jesus continuing a ministry that’s spreading out further into the society, and in the process selecting 12 people from the group around him to be his “apostles”, i.e., the sent-out ones. You might...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Sep 28, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
Looking Out Through New Eyes (Philemon 9-10, 12-17) Some weeks ago, Mother Teresa was raised to the status of a canonized Saint. And though there are many aspects of her life and spirituality to admire and try to imitate, I pick up on one that comes through in this...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Sep 14, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
Badgering God (Mt 15: 21-28) Recently I came across an interesting take on this incident of the Canaanite woman not letting Jesus up in an argument. I read their interchange as “badgering God for the future.” From many indications it’s clear that in their time, both...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Aug 31, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
Formation’s Scratchy Side (Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13) All of us entering this Vincentian Family have to go through what is known as “formation.” Formation: people being formed, shaped, molded – maybe better, being re-molded, re-shaped, and maybe even...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Aug 17, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
Past and Present, Living Through One Another (I John 4:7-16) At a Eucharist honoring the deceased members of the Vincentian Family, I picked up on a verse from the first reading (1 John 4:9). It starts out with the question, “How was God’s love shown to us?” It...
by Tom McKenna, CM | Aug 3, 2016 | Formation, Reflections
“I have seen and so can testify to…” (John 20) So much of the New Testament is about witnessing. “We have seen and testified to…the Eternal life that was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard.” (1 John 1:1-2) In one way...
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...
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...