Mary M. McGlone

Scripture for Life: Jesus didn't tell parables as comforting bedtime stories. Parables should wake us up. The first sign that we are hearing Jesus' message is that it makes us uncomfortable.

Scripture for Life: Today, as we pray for a clean heart, Luke teaches us that sharing God's heart will catapult us into prodigal freedom. God's first concern is always for the lost.

Scripture for Life: Today's Gospel suggests that many of us who assess discipleship by baptism, confirmation, liturgical ministry, etc., are far more comfortable than Jesus' followers should expect to be. 

Scripture for Life: One Sunday at a family gathering, my 4-year-old nephew called us all to attention: "Look at me!" It would be years before he could appreciate Sirach's advice, "Conduct your affairs with humility."

Scripture for Life: God loves diversity. That means God's glory cannot be glimpsed without appreciating the variety of people, cultures and creatures populating the universe.

Scripture for Life: Unless we are zombies, life is going to present us with conflicts. Today's Scriptures call us to discern how grace and God's Spirit are at play in the conflicts that come our way. 

Scripture for Life: This Sunday's three readings describe faith not as belief in something definitive, but radical openness to whatever God is bringing about. Faith keeps us in movement.

Scripture for Life: Whether we picture our deathbed, remember the value of an onion, think about the futility of a dead man's big barns, or simply sit to appreciate the grandeur of nature, these August days are made for more than busyness and stuff. 

Scripture for Life: When Jesus teaches the disciples to pray, he offers a number of phrases that work together to sum up Christian life and mission. But the gist of his teaching about prayer is that God wants to give us what will give us life. 

Scripture for Life: Today's Gospel reminds us that Christ's presence means little if we stay too busy to soak it in. We too are called to real presence — in our prayer and with everyone we meet.

Scripture for Life: The person at the center of today's Gospel, the one who most likely represents us and needs to learn something, is the lawyer Jesus wouldn't let off the hook.

Scripture for Life for July 7, 2019: People who evangelize by their presence are recognizable first by their freedom.

Scripture for Life: Paul wrote that Jesus had instituted his communal meal so that everyone could continue to participate at that Last Supper table with him. They could never be mere observers.

Scripture for Life: The mystery of the Trinity we celebrate today is a mystery of love. This feast invites us to contemplate the triune God as love constantly outpoured. When Jesus speaks of the Spirit, he makes it explicit that we are invited into the dynamic of that love.

Scripture for Life: Anyone who has striven over time to remain faithful knows that a commitment expressed in a moment necessarily passes through a lifetime of growth and development, of deepening and testing, of becoming ever truer. 

Scripture for Life: Jesus sent his disciples to wait together before they would go out. Luke tells us that they went back to Jerusalem and prayed in the Temple. 

If you wanted to name the three most important events of your life, how would you go about choosing them? Your birth is an obvious first. But after that, what criteria would you use to select the others? Most of us would probably pick major transition points, choices that, as Robert Frost wrote, seemed to make all the difference.

Scripture for Life: If Paul and Rahner are right, we are living in a moment of extraordinary grace and opportunity. Our debates may be fierce, but we need to trust that the Holy Spirit will guide us if we are open. The road we choose will make all the difference.

To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave dare not go.” In “The Man of La Mancha,” Don Quixote sang those words in his imaginary role as the chivalrous hero to Dulcinea, the lady of the court he had invented for his dream quest. His idealistic song ends with the idea that if he is true to his quest, the world will be better because one man “strove with his last ounce of courage … to reach the unreachable star.” Of course, Don Quixote was crazy.

Scripture for Life: For the next two weeks, we will hear about St. John's eutopia as he describes it in the Book of Revelation. John is trusting that God gave humanity the vocation to continue the work of creation. John's ideal is a city, the fruit of creation and the work of human hands.