The Inner Word

11 Oct 2015

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What’s in your heart?

Rules have their place. “External rules are clearly intended to impress on minds and hearts what hands are doing,” wrote Alice Camille in a reflection a few years back. Get in the habit of giving, for example, and in time that will help make you a more generous person. But the following of rules is not the sum total of holiness.

4 Oct 2015

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What’s in your heart?

Why was Jesus angry with the disciples for trying to stop people from bringing children to him? For one, he liked children and wanted to give them his blessing. He also didn’t want his disciples to get in the way of a teachable moment about why it was important to have the trust of a child in order to accept the kingdom of God.

27 Sep 2015

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What’s in your heart?

This week’s Letter to the Ephesians, though probably not composed by Paul, captures his spirit and his consistent call for unity: One body, spirit, hope, faith, Baptism, and God of all.

20 Sep 2015

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What’s in your heart?

It’s amazing to think that the disciples were arguing about which of them was the greatest just after Jesus had told them—for the second time—of his Passion to come. The very thing Christ was talking about, the way of lowliness and submission, was the exact opposite of their game of spiritual one-upmanship.

13 Sep 2015

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What’s in your heart?

The Letter of James has some of the strongest language in scripture about the necessity of living your faith.

6 Sep 2015

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What’s in your heart?

In the Letter of James this week we hear of the importance of showing the same impartiality to others that God shows to us. If God doesn’t make distinctions between rich and poor, neither should we.

30 Aug 2015

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What’s in your heart?

The practices of religion are not unimportant, but have you ever let observing them substitute for true faith? Do your outer actions reflect what’s really going on inside?

23 Aug 2015

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What’s in your heart?

Does your faith in Jesus and participation in the Eucharist make a difference in your everyday “way of life”? How do you “accompany” Jesus each day?

16 Aug 2015

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What’s in your heart?

As a person of faith, what does wisdom mean to you? Wisdom has a built a house and is having a banquet spread with her teaching. Will you attend, “not as foolish persons but as wise”? What will you find on the table?

9 Aug 2015

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What’s in your heart?

In what ways does God touch you and give you strength and hope for life’s journey?