Table of Contents
Preface xi
The Advent Cycle
1 The Sunday After Thanksgiving: Five Kernels: First Sunday of Advent 2
2 The Legacy: First Sunday of Advent, A, B, C 6
3 Three Cups of (Weak) Tea: First Sunday of Advent, C, Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 10
4 Testimony of Two Women: First Sunday of Advent, A, Matthew 24:37-44 14
5 Mary Moments: Fourth Sunday of Advent, B, Luke 1:26-38 19
6 Christmas or Xmas?: Advent, A, B, C or Getting Near Christmas 22
7 Two Images for Christmas 26
Lenten Cycle
8 Lent is Calling: Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time, A, Matthew 7:21-27 32
9 A Tale of Two Cities: Lent, A, B, C 36
10 Listen with your Eyes: First Sunday of Lent, A, B, C 40
11 The Temptation Chronicles: First Sunday of Lent, A, Matthew 4:1-11 44
12 Give Them What They Want: First Sunday of Lent, A Matthew 4:1-11 47
13 The Transfiguration: Second Sunday of Lent, A, Matthew 17:1-9 51
14 Encounters: Third Sunday of Lent, A, John 4:5-42 55
15 The Untying: Fifth Sunday of Lent, A John, 11:1-45 61
The Easter Cycle
16 The Easter Church: Easter A B, C 66
17 Why Is this Meal Different?: Fourth Sunday of Easter, A, 1 Peter 2:20-25 71
18 Mary, Raymond and Me: Time of Easter, A, B, C JN 20:11-18 76
19 As I Have Loved You: Fifth Sunday of Easter, C, John 13:31-33a-34, 35 79
20 If You Love Me: Sixth Sunday of Easter, A, John 14:15-21 83
21 Gospel Mirrors: Sixth Sunday of Easter, A 87
22 The Ascension: A, B, C 91
23 Pentecost, The In-between Time: A, B, C 94
Ordinary Time
24 Five A Day: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, B, Mark 1:40-45 98
25 Enough: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, C, Luke 6:27-38 101
26 The Cost of Discipleship: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, C, Luke 6:27-38 105
27 The Saga of the Paralyzed Man: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, B, Mark 2:1-12 109
28 Do Not Worry: Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, A, Matthew 6:24-34 112
29 Spiritually Teasing Stories: Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, A, Matthew 13:1-23 116
30 Becoming Rachel: Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 121
31 The Woman Who Taught Jesus: Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, A, Matthew 15:21-28 124
32 Hospitality: Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, C, Luke 13:22-30 128
33 Ruth's Legacy: Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, A, Romans 12:1-2 131
34 Variation of a Theme: Twenty-Sixth Sunday, A, Philippians 2:1-5 135
35 Wellsprings: Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time B, Mark 1042-45 140
36 Hereafter: Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, C, Lk 20:27-38 144
37 Doubt: Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, C, 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5 148
Feasts & Occasions
38 New Year's (Solemnity of Mary): Luke 2:16-11 154
39 A Saint for July 158
40 The Guns of August 162
41 Black History Month: The Slave and the Singer 166
42 A Reflection on Mary 170
43 Trust Dies in Brooklyn 174
44 Trust Revisited 178
45 Opening the Box: The Body and Blood of Christ, A, B, C, 183
46 Saints and Celebrities: All Saints 187
47 St. Dad: Father's Day 191
48 Thanksgiving 197
49 Introductions to the Passiontide Readings 202
50 On My Fifty-fifth Anniversary 209
Funeral Homilies
51 Jackie May, Valiant Woman: John 11:32-45 216
52 Zaira D'Vella, Growing Older, Growing Great 220
53 Michael Savoia: Fingerprints and Heartprints 224
54 Bill Barth and the Little Tin Box: John 11:21-27 229
The Series: An Experiment: A Lenten Series on Technology and the Christian and the Series on Confession and the Series on the Local Church
55 An Excursus on the Series 234
56 Cell Phones and Cars: First Sunday of Lent 246
57 The Divis Syndrome: Second Sunday of Lent 251
58 Alien Voices: Third Sunday of Lent 255
59 Trivial Pursuits: Fourth Sunday of Lent 259
60 iPod and I, God: Fifth Sunday of Lent 264
61 Fatal Attraction 270
62 Confession and Community 274
63 A Brief History of Confession 278
64 An Apt App Confession 282
65 The Examen 286
66 Confessional Postscripts 290
67 The Local Church 294
68 The Foursquare Church 298
69 The Full-Circle Church 302
70 The Right Place 305
71 Olga and Darran 308
72 The Fourteen Generations 312
73 Dorothy Stang 316
Notes and Credits 319
