2023 archive of Reflections
Fr. Jo's Reflection for The Most Holy Trinity, Yr A, June 4, 2023
Posted by John Wolf on 6/02/23
Around the year AD 200, one of the early Church Fathers, by name Tertullian used the word “Trinity” to describe God. 125 years later, at the Council of Nicaea, the Church adopted this term in expressing God’s nature as we proclaim every Sunday when we recite the Nicene Creed. ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for Pentecost Sunday, Yr A, May 28, 2023
Posted by John Wolf on 5/26/23
It requires more than a course in public speaking to turn around minds and hearts caught in paralyzing fear. Several years after I became a priest, my mother revealed to me that one of her greatest concerns about my desire to become a priest was how her ‘Little Jo’ ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for The Ascension of the Lord, Yr A, May 21, 2023
Posted by John Wolf on 5/19/23
We seem to have inside us a switch of rebellion turned on the moment someone tries to tell us what to do. Don’t we? We dislike the word “authority” and distrust or rather mistrust authority—from the authority of parents to those of teachers, the Church, the police, and, go ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter, Yr A, May 14, 2023
Posted by John Wolf on 5/12/23
I recently learned from an episode in the History Channel something that baffled me: That right as we sit here today, there are coal fires burning underground in this country. Have you heard that before? It is said that some of the fires have burned for decades and there’s ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Easter, Yr A, May 7, 2023
Posted by John Wolf on 5/05/23
I was invited for a presentation at a neighboring Protestant Church on the “500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.” One eloquent speaker narrated how Christians got along very harmoniously for 1400 years until the Catholic Church leadership got corrupt leading to the reformation that Fr. Martin Luther orchestrated. My ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 4th Sunday of Easter, Yr A, April 30, 2023
Posted by John Wolf on 4/28/23
One of the sites I visited on my first trip to Rome was the “Catacombs of Priscilla.” My interest to visit that particular catacomb was aroused, first by Priscilla being my mother’s name; and then, a BBC newscaster one morning had a number of women arguing for women’s ordination ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, Yr A, April 23, 2023
Posted by John Wolf on 4/21/23
Emmaus was a city in the Shephelah or “lowland” of Palestine, noted for several historic conquests by the Jews. In 166 BC, it was the site of the victory of Judas over Gorgias, recorded in First Maccabees 4:1-22, where we also find the first Old Testament reference to the ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 2nd Sunday of Easter (Sunday of Divine Mercy), Yr A, April 16, 2023
Posted by John Wolf on 4/14/23
You’ll perhaps think that if Jesus, after His resurrection, had shown Himself to more people besides His disciples, everyone would believe that He rose from the dead. If on that Easter morning, He had presented Himself to Herod, then Pilate and Caiaphas, that would be quite impressive; but He ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for Easter Sunday, Yr A, April 9, 2023
Posted by John Wolf on 4/07/23
I recommend that every Christian should have in their bucket list of things to do before they die, two pilgrimages: one to Rome, specifically for the celebration of Easter, and another to Jerusalem for the celebration of Holy Week. It’ll be a kind of ‘reverse pilgrimage’ to attend the ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Yr A, April 2, 2023
Posted by John Wolf on 3/31/23
Psalm 122:3 says: “Jerusalem is built as a city strongly compact; it is there that the tribes GO UP, the tribes of the Lord.” And so, there’s this imagery of Jerusalem as a city to which people go up. From whichever direction you’re taking to Jerusalem, you’re going up. ... Read More »