Reflections
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr C, July 10, 2022
Posted by John Wolf on 7/08/22
Though the distance from Jerusalem to Jericho is merely 15 miles, the hazardous interstate road takes a traveler from a height of approximately 2,500 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 ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr C, July 3, 2022
Posted by John Wolf on 6/30/22
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 dressed up and played Peter nailed upside down the cross. Another dressed like Paul with the sword of the man who beheaded ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr C, June 26, 2022
Posted by John Wolf on 6/24/22
Because the readings of this Sunday point to the calls of different individuals, I’ll like to reflect on the topic of vocation. Vocation comes from the Latin “voco” or “vocare,” meaning call or to call. We can be called to the married life, single life, religious life, priesthood, and ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Yr C, June 19, 2022
Posted by John Wolf on 6/17/22
I didn’t intend to shock my RCIA class some years ago when I told them, during a 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, Yr C, June 12, 2022
Posted by John Wolf on 6/11/22
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 C, June 5, 2022
Posted by John Wolf on 6/03/22
Crunching numbers can sometimes provide needed clarity; so, we have on the count 1,989 years. That’s how long it has been since the Catholic Church was born, and today is her birthday. Before that first Pentecost day, the Church had lived in the ‘womb’ of the Spirit, undergoing varied ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the Ascension of the Lord, Yr C, May 29, 2022
Posted by John Wolf on 5/27/22
Back in my Secondary/High School years when I participated in Inter-House sports, I already had long legs and was involved in track and field. I remember being instructed by our relay race coach that it’s less important how fast one member of the relay team runs. The critical moment ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter, Yr C, May 22, 2022
Posted by John Wolf on 5/20/22
Compared to the Council of Jerusalem—the First Church Council, the document of which formed the First Reading of the Mass today—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 a textbook with ... Read More »
Fr. Jo's Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Easter, Yr C, May 15, 2022
Posted by John Wolf on 5/13/22
It’ll take a grammarian to notice the ‘time clause’ introducing today’s Gospel reading: “When Judas had left….” Time clauses are used to express successive 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, Yr C, May 8, 2022
Posted by John Wolf on 5/06/22
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 »