2025 archive of Reflections
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 »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the Most Holy Trinity, Year C, June 15, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 6/13/25
A fellow passenger seated next to me on a train ride from Frankfurt to Vienna engaged me in a somewhat heated debate. He was a British tourist, and like me, he was visiting Vienna for a musical concert at the Mozart’s Hall. We first shared each others love for ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for Pentecost Sunday, Year C, June 8, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 6/06/25
One thousand nine hundred and ninety two (1992) years is the count. That’s how long it has been since the Catholic Church came to birth, and today is her birthday. Before that first Pentecost day, the Church had lived in the ‘womb’ of the Spirit and had undergone varied ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the Ascension of the Lord, Year C, June 1, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 5/31/25
Coaches always sound the warning to runners in relay races that it’s less important how fast a member of the relay team runs. Rather, the critical aspect of a relay race is the passing on of the baton from one runner to the other. More relay races are won ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter, Year C, May 25, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 5/24/25
Compared to the Council of Jerusalem, the Second Vatican Council produced hundreds of pages of conciliar and post-conciliar documents. Whether the final document of a council is a line, a paragraph, or hundreds of pages, every Church council retains the same essential elements. First, a council is convoked to ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C, May 18, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 5/16/25
If you’re a grammarian, you’ll notice the ‘time clause’ introducing the Gospel reading of today—“When Judas had left….” Time clauses are used to express events that happened or will happen at a particular time. Hypothetically, the event wouldn’t happen at some other time. For example, “When I have free ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 4th Sunday of Easter, Year C, May 11, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 5/09/25
It was my mother’s birthday. I was in Rome and thinking how I would mark her birthday. As I listened to the BBC that morning, I heard of a new catacomb opened in Rome called the “Catacombs of Priscilla.” The newscaster had a number of women who were arguing ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, Year C, May 4, 2025
Posted by John Wolf on 5/02/25
Often, we feel we have mastered the universe and how it works based on our ability to plumb a minuscule area of our natural habitat. Feeling that they have found the universal equation explaining everything, some in modern society who take naturalism and rational thought as their creed go ... Read More »