Seek consensus and unity, not division. This is a fairly obvious expectation for human collaboration. We have a maddening propensity toward ignoring this expectation, however.

It is typical of all of us that, when someone brings up a topic we don't want to think about, we change the subject. The Twelve can do this just as well as we can.

It is permitted to move a popular solemnity or feast of the Lord to a nearby Sunday. What could be more popular than the parish's own feast day?

As we hear of Jesus' healing of a deaf and speechless man, we ask how well we are hearing the Church's teaching of the truth about economic matters.

In the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, today was set aside for special readings and prayers for a new bishop. The readings were from Isaiah 61, Hebrews 5, and John 17. The podcast includes a few thoughts on the bishop as someone who is first a good administrator of what's going on in his own heart.

Our affiliations speak about our life priorities. We are free to join ourselves to God or not. Whether we do or not makes all the difference for the direction and meaning of our lives.

We open ourselves to wisdom as we acknowledge how little wisdom we have. We develop our hunger and thirst for Jesus. Some thoughts today on health care and the common good, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and Buzz Aldrin.

If we speak of something as "merely a symbol," we don't understand symbolism and its power. Some etymologies say that the word "manna" itself means "what is it?" God's people keep on asking for the food that nourishes to eternity. When Jesus said, "I am the bread of life," he meant it, absolutely.

What can we define as "a lot of food"? Given the insatiable appetites of human beings, it's hard to say that any quantity is a lot. Obviously, our God is calling us to be less concerned about stockpiles and more concerned about our relationship with the one who feeds us.

There were no homilies the last two weekends, as I was at work camp. Gathering the flock together and making sure that they are fed: these are the responsibilities of the shepherd. Even the shepherd is changed by his interaction with the sheep.