He Set His Face- Luke 9:51-62

I. Witness to the First Spring
Spring is a time of transition, a season during which most day-to-day changes are barely perceptible. Days lengthen by mere minutes at a time and the chill of winter leaves with a struggle, but by the beginning of summer the cold and limited hours of sunlight are distant memory. I [...]

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The Christ of the Valley- Luke 9:37-50

Mountaineering presents several challenges, especially concerning the necessity to properly acclimatize to changes in altitude before attempting to scale the world’s highest peaks. Climbers begin a regimen of repeated ascents into thinner air, and progressively longer stays at the higher level, followed by descents to a lower camp, weeks prior to reaching the summit. Persons [...]

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Transfiguration- Luke 9:23-36

There was a certain person who, by loving Me with his whole soul, learned the things of God and inspired many by the wonders of the things he spoke…To some I speak of ordinary things, to others special things; to some I appear in signs and figures, while to others I reveal mysteries in a [...]

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Who Do You Say That I Am?- Luke 9:1-22

Then He said to them, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Peter said in reply, ‘The Messiah of God.’ He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. He said, ‘The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.’ (Luke 9:20-22)

As Chapter 9 of the Gospel of Luke opens, the author of the third Gospel reveals to us another dimension of who Jesus is. While He is the ‘Messiah of God’, He must complete His earthly mission as ‘Son of Man’ by taking our sin and death upon Himself to redeem us. The twelve disciples begin to understand the necessity of the Cross in their own lives, and are being converted into Apostles who will lead the Church.

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Lord of Miracles- Luke 8:22-56

In a small indigenous community there lived an elderly woman whose daily task was to carry the villagers’ clothing to the nearby river, wherein she would wash it. The humble old lady had little money and few personal belongings, though she had saved about seventy Spanish Real, enough to buy herself a small crucifix in [...]

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Women and Parables- Luke 8:1-21

(NOVEMBER, 1887- ROME, ITALY) Thérèse Martin reflected on the plight of women of her time while retuning from the audience to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the priestly ordination of Pope Leo XIII. Eight years later, Sr. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, OCD, would record her thoughts in her autobiography [...]

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Preparing the Way of the Messiah- Luke 7:18-50

Señor, abre mis labios,
Y mi boca proclamará tu alabanza.
Lord, open my lips,
And my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Those words signal the beginning of the Invitatory Psalm in the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Divine Office, which is prayed daily by Catholic priests and religious as well as by many laypersons. As I wrote the [...]

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Only Say the Word- Luke 7:1-17

The Sermon on the Plain in Luke’s Gospel ends with Jesus sternly admonishing His disciples to not only call Him “Lord, Lord” (Luke 6:46), but to act according to His teaching. Failure to live the Christian message despite having heard it, Jesus states clearly, will result in “ruin”. (Luke 6:49)
…A sudden change of focus occurs [...]

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On Judging to the Two Foundations- Luke 6:37-49

Jesus’ Sermon on the Level Place (cf. Luke 6) begins with His teaching about blessings and woes. This discourse is not intended to be a criticism of any particular social class or of the class system of first-century Palestine in general. Instead, the point is that in Heaven there will be no favourites. The saints [...]

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On the Level- Luke 6:6-36

The controversy narratives in St. Luke’s Gospel (cf. Luke 5:12-6:11) show another side of the life of Christ, one that would potentially be discouraging to the reader were they not placed after Luke’s treatment of the triumphs early in Jesus’ ministry. Not long ago in his Gospel, St. Luke was relating Jesus’ great popularity, especially [...]

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