Author name: Essjay Peatoo

As I approach today’s Gospel reading (John 5:17-30), I am reminded of the story about a man sitting beside a campfire while he roasts some kind of bird over the fire with eager anticipation.  About this time, a forest ranger comes along and asks the camper what he is preparing for dinner.  The camper replies […]

In today’s Gospel (John 5:1-16), we have a man with some unknown illness hoping to get into the “Bethesda” pool near the Sheep Gate into the city of Jerusalem.  This guy wasn’t just looking for a nice dip in the pool, though.  This pool was a center for healing.  Pilgrims to the pool waited for

As strange as it may seem, today’s readings remind us that Lent, while a season of prayer, penance, and almsgiving, also is a season that is filled with joy. Today, Isaiah speaks of a coming Utopia, a totally new world full of joy and gladness (Isaiah 65:17-21). It is a world without pain or sadness,

Of all the parables that Jesus spoke, the one featuring the prodigal son may be the most touching, most joyful, and best remembered. The story is fairly brief. A father has two sons, and when the younger son comes of age, he asks for his share of the family inheritance. The father obliges the request,

We have arrived at the end of the third week in Lent.  Tomorrow is Laetare Sunday.  As I prepare to celebrate the passion of Christ, I pray all of God’s people will know His mercy and express their love for the Lord in the weeks ahead.  It is so easy to grow weary and discouraged

The Lenten season is quickly passing. We are now about halfway through our Lenten journey. Continuing this week’s theme of listening, there are three lines, from each of today’s scripture readings, that speak to me. In the first reading, from the prophet Hosea, we hear the haunting refrain in which God calls to the people

When I was a young boy, one of my friends had a transistor radio (remember transistor radios?). He liked to bring it to school so the rest of us boys would be jealous that he had one and we did not.  One lunchtime, we were on the playground eating our bag lunches when he turned

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, the day on which we celebrate the moment when the Archangel Gabriel came to the world, to the poor village of Nazareth, in the region of Galilee, proclaiming to a young virgin named Mary the Good News that mankind had awaited for a very

There seems to be a lot of anger in the readings of the last week, and that anger continues today. In the first reading (2 Kings 5:1‑15), Aram, king of Israel, is enraged because he thinks that the king of Syria is trying to pick a quarrel with him by sending Naaman, his army commander,