Posted by Carol Johnson on 10/16/24
Perhaps the amount of money this seven-year-old boy saw in the collection basket of the church in my hometown was the largest amount of money he had ever seen. This boy thought that all that money was for the priest of the church. He was once asked what he ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 10/07/24
The Bizarro world is a fictional planet that arrived on the scene of comic books in the 1960s. In the Bizarro world everything was the opposite of our planet. When I reflect on today’s Gospel reading, I think of this Bizarro world. Because of original sin, humanity lived in ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 9/23/24
Father Bob Kus is one of six priests who were ordained along with me. Father Bob was in his fifties when he was ordained and has now been retired for six years but he did not really stop working. Instead, he moved to a remote village in Honduras where ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 9/16/24
I once heard a professor of Shakespeare say that the events in the middle of Shakespeare’s plays were the key to understanding their ending. I remember that professor’s comment each time I read this part of the Gospel of Mark. Saint Mark used the same brilliant technique in the ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 9/09/24
In today's gospel reading, Saint Mark tells us about an excursion, the second one, that the Lord made through the region of the Ten Cities. This region was non-Jewish territory. The fact that the Lord went on excursions outside of Israel indicated that the blessings of the kingdom of ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 9/01/24
This is one of the strangest things I have personally encountered in the celebration of the sacraments. At the time, I was the associate priest at a large parish. One day, a baptism was scheduled at the same time as Mass, so I performed the baptism in a hall ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 8/26/24
There are times in each person's life when we must make very important decisions; decisions that mark a critical before and after. Either we go this way, or we go that way. I, for example, had to choose between priesthood and non-consecrated life. I also had to choose between ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 8/18/24
There is no homily this week as Deacon Steve was the homilist.
Posted by Carol Johnson on 8/18/24
When you walked into the church today, many of you thought you were entering a different church: the statue of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton prominently displayed in the nave, the pictures of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Divine Mercy hanging on the back wall.
The pedestal now allows ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 8/11/24
In today’s gospel, the Lord tells his followers that He himself is the bread that came down from heaven. He promises that anyone who eats his flesh will not die but will live forever. The Church pairs this gospel reading with the story from the First Book of Kings ... Read More »