Mark 5:21-43, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectio divina, or literally, “holy reading,” is a Benedictine method of prayer. You read a Bible passage slowly. A word/phrase will soon stir feelings or trigger thoughts. When that happens, you stay on that word/phrase, and gently allow yourself to engage the thoughts and feelings it evokes, whether…
Category: Evangelist: Mark
Grow Unobserved – John Foley, SJ
Mark 4:26-34, Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time The farmer sows seeds in the earth and then waits. He will use a scythe (“blade”) to reap the crop when it is ready. Then he and his neighbors with him will gather it into piles, or “pooks” as they were called in England, so that the farmer…
Possessed – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Mark 3:20-35, Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time How do we tell if someone is possessed by the devil or having a psychotic breakdown? Dr Steven Waterhouse gives us a simple triage so we could begin to discern the difference. Dr Waterhouse is a pastor, a counselor, and a systematic theologian from Michigan. He works mainly…
Divide and Conquer – Joel Liwanag, SJ
Mark 3:20-35, Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Niccolò Machiavelli, in Book VI of The Art of War, presents one of the most effective strategies in warfare. His advice: divide and conquer. If you are a military leader who wants to attack your enemy, then begin by sowing division. Find a way for your opponents to…
Christify – Bishop Pablo Virgilio David
Mark 14:12-16. 22-26, Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ The Jesuit composer of liturgical music, Fr Manoling Francisco, SJ, has written a song entitled Christify. It is an invented word, no doubt; but so is “transubstantiation”! In Tagalog, I would translate Christify to “gawing si Kristo” or “tulutang maging si Kristo”. Here is…
Indelicate Question – John Foley, SJ
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26, Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ Why are you eating somebody’s body and drinking his blood? An indelicate question, but still, why? You walk up the aisle and receive what appears to be bread and wine, but which is really Christ’s Body and Blood. The Roman historian Pliny…
Hugot – Jett Villarin, SJ
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26, Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ Now there’s a picturesque Filipino word. It means to draw or pull something out from some depth. Used these days, hugot suggests the drawing out of deep feelings and meanings. A song or line has hugot if it draws these affective movements…
Body and Blood – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26, Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ On weekdays, my 82-year-old dad gets up at 5:30am. After breakfast, he hops on a cab that takes him to the wharf. Then he gets on a bus that rolls onto a ferry that heads for Samal Island where he works in…
Between this Goodbye and the Next Hello – Johnny Go, SJ
Mark 16:15-20, Solemnity of the Ascension of The Lord This parting with the disciples as the Lord is taken up to heaven–that makes two goodbyes in a row. A little over a month earlier, they’ve just been through that long, emotional goodbye at the Last Supper, the night of the Lord’s arrest and the eve…
Rise and Fall – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Mark 16:15-20, Solemnity of The Ascension of The Lord What goes up must come down. What rises must fall. That’s the law of gravity. But, what comes down must go up? Now that’s the “law” of the Ascension. In fact, that’s the whole Paschal Mystery, motion-wise: what descends eventually rises. For scientists who don’t believe…
Elevation – Pat Nogoy, SJ
Mark 16:15-20, Solemnity of The Ascension of The Lord Ordinarily, it means going higher. It is taking it to an advanced level, sometimes in stratospheric space where very few champions reigned. I often hear it used in sports—describing the efforts and skills of athletes that dare defy our ideas of boundaries and limits. In front…
Stay Awhile – John Foley, SJ
Mark 16:15-20, Solemnity of the Ascension of The Lord At the end of each school year, in American schools such as Saint Louis University, the students, along with their networks of friends, scatter. And fly away. As a presider at a recent mass admitted with beautiful poignancy, how much we miss them when the school…
One Lost Sheep 