In the ancient world, people used to worship powers. The sun was very powerful, so they worshiped the sun. Wind can be very destructive, so they worshiped the wind. Rain and water floods and could cause great damage, so they worshiped water. It did not take long to figure out that these gods, who manifested...

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Pentecost is a Jewish harvest feast. What do you harvest in the month of May? You could harvest flowers. Everything grows well in the spring. You also can harvest wheat. Pentecost means fifty, so fifty days of harvesting means there is a lot of wheat, plenty for everyone. Let’s say you live in the ancient...

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Before my brother and his wife got married, they made a plan to have a simple wedding. They did not want to spend a lot of money on the wedding so that they could use their resources to start out in life. When they revealed their plan to the family, it did not go over...

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What do shepherds do all day? They watch sheep. What do sheep do all day? They eat. That is, they graze on alfalfa weeds: very boring, especially for the young shepherd David. So he took out the ancient version of the video game, his slingshot.  Whenever a wild animal scurried across the field or flew...

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“I am the gate.” Why gate? I can understand that Christ is the shepherd of the sheep. I can understand why he is the vine because we are the branches. But the gate? When Abraham lived among the Bedouins, sheep, and lambs were kept inside the gate during the winter months. This made sense because...

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When I was in charge of supplies here in the house, I had one company that provided all my cleaning equipment. I could call and say, “The what-do-you-call-it on my red vacuum cleaner broke.” Then they will say, “Okay, you need new belts, I’ll send them out to you.” You can’t do that with Home...

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I grew up with four brothers, no sisters. I worked for on a construction crew—all guys. Over the last thirty years, I have lived in a religious community, all men. I spent most of my life dealing with guys. This is what I learned: Whenever you see a group of giddy, happy, and overjoyed bunch...

The post Divine Mercy Sunday (2020) appeared first on St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine.

Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. (John 20:1-19) We do not see the risen Jesus yet; we see burial wrappings. So let’s take a good look at the burial wrappings inside the tomb. The headpiece is rolled up and put...

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About 1000 yards away, at the fortress of Antonia, Barabbas was in a jail cell listening to a conversation between Pilate and the crowd. The conversation went something like this: Pilate said to the crowd, “Whom shall I release to you?” The crowd shouted, “Barabbas! Barabbas!” Pilate then said, “What should I do with Jesus,...

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Let’s suppose I am Lazarus. My body is lying on a cold, stone shelf in a tomb.  There I will stay for about a year. Then someone will roll back the stone. Put my bones in a bone-box and put a new body on the shelf. Before all of this happens, the stone is moved...

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