2025 archive of Reflections
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, August 24, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 8/23/25
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to identify the direction Jesus is going in today’s gospel. In a very blunt language, He tells us that no one has a lock on heaven. Heaven isn’t a summer home you visit when the temperature in Oklahoma turns 112. Rather, ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, August 17, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 8/15/25
We cannot fail to wonder why the Lord Jesus whom we know as the Prince of Peace would make deeply disturbing and very perplexing statements as the ones in today’s gospel: “I have come to bring fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already blazing! Do ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, August 10, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 8/08/25
I request that you give a special thought to this question: If you had to describe your faith to someone, what exactly would you say? I’m not asking about your religion. I mean your faith. What do you believe? What is your strongest conviction? Would you spend some time ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, August 3, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 8/01/25
A sign outside one Church reads: “Do not wait for the hearse to take you to Church.” They’re words for one who has no room for God. Wealth and possessions are typically blessings from God. If you’re wealthy, count it a blessing from God. Yet, possessions can assume such ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, July 27, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 7/25/25
You wouldn’t think that the dialogue between Abraham and God in the first reading was prayer. Yet, we can sense how Abraham’s bromance with God was certainly a lofty dialogue, where tenderness, veneration, and boldness fuse admirably together (Motte). Though Jesus taught His disciples the “Our Father” as a ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, July 20, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 7/18/25
Who in your life is a stranger? The baby in the womb that has been judged unwanted? The person with a different political position or opinion? The immigrant next door who plays his music loud? Do you know that there’re blessings associated with tolerating or appreciating them, welcoming and ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, July 13, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 7/12/25
Though the distance from Jerusalem to Jericho is merely 15 miles, the hazardous road takes a traveler from a height of approximately 2500 feet above sea level to a depth of 800 feet below. The traveler endures dusty desert terrains before meeting the plush green fields of the “City ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, July 6, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 7/02/25
During their Totuus Tuus program, a group of young facilitators of the summer catechesis taught the children a game called: “How to spot a disciple.” A child dresses up and played Peter nailed upside down the cross. Another dresses like Paul with the sword of the man who beheaded ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles, Year C, June 29, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 6/28/25
“All saints are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Today, we celebrate the feast of the two greatest apostles, Peter and Paul. To accord them high ranks among the saints is not just to sound Orwellian or depict the chicanery of democratic socialism and the hypocrisy that ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year C, June 22, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 6/21/25
It was shocking when a few years ago, I told my RCIA (now OCIA) class, during our discussion on the Eucharist, that we are a cultic people. I could see their eyes double in size, and read the movement of their tight lips—“We belong to a cult?” In an ... Read More »