Author name: Essjay Peatoo

Today we begin the reading from Luke’s Gospel, which will bring us to the end of the Church year. We have already gone through Matthew’s and Mark’s, and John’s Gospel has been spread through various parts of the year, especially during the Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter seasons. Luke’s Gospel is a companion volume to […]

Perhaps today should be called “Prophecy Sunday”. We start with Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:7-9). Prophecy was not a job Jeremiah wanted. “You tricked me, Lord” he tells God. “I have received nothing but derision and reproach.”  The job of a prophet was not to serve as fortune teller, as perhaps we might think. It was to

Sometimes it is hard to keep the people, places and events in the Scriptures straight.  Was it the prophet Elijah that did such-and-such or was it his student, the prophet Elisha?  Was it Elijah that raised from the dead the son of Zarephath’s widow?  Was it Elisha who raised from the dead the Shunammite Woman’s

Doctor of the Church (354-430) Augustine was born in 354 in Tagaste, a modest Roman community in a river valley 40 miles (64 km) from the Mediterranean coast in Africa, near the point where the veneer of Roman civilization thinned out in the highlands of Numidia (present day Algeria).  Augustine’s parents, Patricius and St. Monica,

Considering the devastating aftermath of the COVID virus on the world’s economy; staggering damage being done by fires and floods raging across large swaths of eastern and southern Asia, Russia, northern Africa, Europe, western and southern United States, Canada, Australia, India, Bangladesh, Mexico, and Brazil; and concerns about increased terrorism across Africa, southeast Asia, and

In the 23rd Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus pronounces seven “woes” on the religious leaders of His day (the scribes and Pharisees).Prior to Jesus’ condemnation of the religious hypocrites, they had been following Him to test Him and try to trick Him with questions about divorce, about His authority, about paying taxes to Rome, about the

We have been reading from the Old Testament for the past nine weeks. We began with the 12th chapter of the book of Genesis and went through selected passages from each of the first eight books of the Bible in order: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and Ruth. This week we go back

Feast August 24 Today is the Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle.  According to three of the Gospels, his name was Bartholomew, but St. John calls him Nathanael.  By whatever name we call him, we do not know much about Bartholomew.  The First Reading (Revelation 21:9-14) focuses on the role of the Apostles as the foundation

I have often said, in these Daily Reflections, that it sometimes is useful to read the entire chapter from which the day’s readings are taken. That is particularly true with today’s first reading (Isaiah 22:19-23).  Shebna has a rather lofty image of himself, in part because he holds a lofty position in the palace. He

Today’s Gospel reading from Matthew 23 (Matthew 23:1-12) brings to mind an earlier reading from Matthew 7.  In Matthew 7, Jesus admonishes us to not judge; and to not be concerned about the splinter in our brother’s eye when we have a wooden beam in our own.  Today’s teaching on hypocrisy is in the same