Gospel Article

Can A Rich Man Be Saved? By Fr. Roni Schamoun           In this Sunday Gospel reading Jesus tells us a story of a rich man who was not saved. Now, if the rich man in this story was not saved because he was rich, then Jesus could have said it with only one sentence but instead he tells a story with many details. In fact, if the rich man was not saved because of his wealth, then even the Prophet Abraham would not be in the paradise and the poor man Lazarus at his side because in [...]

Interior Life By Fr. Daniel Shaba       If you have ever been on a retreat you will notice that the last talk is almost always about not relying on the "spiritual high" that a retreat could give you. What exactly is this spiritual high? When you are on a retreat and surrounded by priests and nuns--something that is foreign to your daily way of living--can be overwhelming. After many talks, activities, and being surrounded by priests and religious people can cause something to feel like they are living in a heavenly euphoria. While this feeling is not intrinsically wrong, it should not be [...]

God Allows Us to Suffer Only to Bring About Some Greater Good By Fr. Ankido Sipo     So often in the gospels, we read of stories of people interacting with our Lord in beautiful ways, yet they go unnamed. The greatest example of this is in the Gospel of John, in which John does not use his own name to refer to himself, but calls himself merely the “Beloved Disciple.” The reasons why the gospel writers leave some people unnamed are complex and vary from person to person, but one thing we can certainly say on a spiritual level is [...]

God's Mercy By Fr. Simon Esshaki   The Parable of the Prodigal Son reveals, more than anything, God’s mercy toward mankind. Jesus, who is the ultimate revelation of God the Father, tells a story about God’s love and mercy for us sinners. We can all see ourselves in the son who ran away from his father, taking the inheritance of what would have belonged to him after he died, and squandering it on loose living. We have all sinned and at one point or another betrayed God. We have ran away from his love and squandered the gifts he has given [...]

Discerning a Vocation By Fr. Andrew Younan In my sixteen years as a priest, I’ve been vocation director, seminary rector, and spiritual director to a convent. More importantly, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot, and like many God-related things, a lot of the knowledge we have about vocations is about what’s not true. How exactly someone goes about “discerning a vocation” is a hard thing to answer, but I can definitely tell you what not to do. For one thing, don’t talk to me about it anymore. This post is all you’re getting. Also there’s a video at [...]

He Will Be With Us Until The End of Time By Fr. Peter Patros Jesus makes us many promises and we know Christ is someone who always keeps his promises. One specific promise he gives us and his disciples is that he will be with us until the end of time. How does Jesus fulfill this promise if he ended up leaving this world at the time of his Ascension? Jesus fulfills this promise by becoming present to us: body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist every time we celebrate the mass. We read in the Epistle of Saint Paul [...]

Go into the world and proclaim the Gospel By Fr. David Stephen   Christ instructs His disciples to “Go into the world and proclaim the Gospel.” This is a call to action for the disciples as well as for us. We are disciples of Christ trying to follow in His footsteps and grow in our relationship with Him. The question then begs, ‘How do I go out into the world to preach the Gospel?’ First and foremost we must know God to teach about Him. He must be in our everyday life that we might preach about the Gospel to the [...]

What is the Meaning of Life? By Fr. Ankido Sipo   The Gospel reading from the Gospel of John this Sunday answers the question, even if in a difficult way to understand, that every child asks himself almost immediately upon developing enough to wonder about the world. We have all asked ourselves, young and old: what is the meaning of life? Jesus answers the question simply: “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Here, Jesus is not showing how to get to eternal life but is showing [...]

Asking God for Things By Fr. Simon Esshaki   Probably all of us have experienced a time in our lives when we asked God for something and did not receive it. We could ask ourselves why Jesus would say that we should “ask and receive” if he will not give us what we ask for. Whenever there is a seeming contradiction in the Scriptures and with the way that we experience God’s providence, it does not mean that God or the Scriptures are wrong; it probably means that we are missing something. The first thing to do in this case is [...]