Posted by Carol Johnson on 1/13/25
Being a complete unknown in Israel at the time, the Lord traveled 80 miles from his hometown of Nazareth to Bethany beyond the Jordan to be baptized by St. John the Baptist. The baptism of the Lord is the first event in which the Gospels present the Lord as ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 1/13/25
St. Matthew tells us that the Magi came on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage” (Matthew 2:3). St. Matthew concludes the story, “And on entering the house, ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 1/13/25
With hope of healing her husband William's illness, Elizabeth Ann Bayley left New York in the fall of 1803. They hoped that Italy’s warmer weather would help William's tuberculosis subside. They took their eldest daughter, Ana Maria, age 8, with them and left their other four children (ages 2-7) ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 1/02/25
St. Luke tells us that eight days after his birth, as was the Jewish religious tradition, the child Jesus was circumcised and formally given his name. Not many years ago, the Church, instead of focusing on these things that happened a week after the birth of the Son of ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 12/28/24
I was born in my parents' home. This was common practice in my village half a century ago. I don't know who else was present in the room with my mother and the midwife. I'm not sure if my father was in the room or in an adjoining room ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 12/23/24
The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her relative Elizabeth is the distinctive theme of the Gospel reading this Fourth Sunday of Advent. The Visitation was immediate preparation for the Lord’s arrival. Once she learned from the angel that Elizabeth was in her sixth month of pregnancy, Mary ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 12/18/24
The late Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos was a prominent bishop in Latin America. Pope St. John Paul II appointed him to a very important position at the Vatican. As it often happens, there was speculation about who would be the next pope. In the early 2000s, Cardinal Castrillon ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 12/10/24
The book of Judges tells us about Gideon. It was in the decades after the entry into the Promised Land and before the time of the kings. Nomadic peoples came and stole Israel's crops and livestock. God chose Gideon to confront Midian, one of these exploitative peoples.
Gideon was ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 12/10/24
People ask us priests how we knew we had a vocation to the priesthood. Giving a straight answer is difficult. It is not like one day we heard a voice from heaven giving us the assurance of our vocation. It is more like the Word of God subtly entering ... Read More »
Posted by Carol Johnson on 11/25/24
We are used to seeing the letters INRI on crucifixes, an acronym for the words “Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews” in Latin. When a friend of mine from High School would see a crucifix with the acronym on top, he would jokingly say that the crucifix, “It ... Read More »