High up on the shelf in my Sunday School classroom, there was a picture book about the life of Jesus. It had been written and illustrated long before I was born and its pages were fragile and yellow with age. The Jesus in that book—and the Jesus I met in most of the pictures I saw as a child, was a gentle man with a faraway smile.   Some pictures showed him sitting quietly with a sheep across his shoulders or a child upon his knee. Others showed him standing in a meadow, gazi

The Gospel Lesson we hear today is imbedded in the “Bread of Life” discourse of the 6 th Chapter of the Gospel of John. Jesus has already fed the 5,000 with the barley loaves and little fish and has come to the disciples as they huddled in their frail boat during the storm on the sea. The crowd continued to pursue Jesus and when they gather about him, he announces, “I am the bread of life.” Now comes a lengthy commentary on this claim. But as the Lord takes up this pronouncem

This is one of my prayer books. It is the volume of the Liturgy of the Hours for this season of the year. And priests and bishops are required to recite the psalms, scripture readings, and prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours five times each day. The promise to pray the Liturgy of the Hours is made at ordination and is a solemn obligation. We who preach promise to pray. But prayer is more than the movement of the eyes and the lips and the sound of the voice. Prayer involves

On my first Christmas as a priest, I drove from my parish in Greensboro to my aunt’s house in Charlotte after the Christmas Morning Mass. I arrived at the door of the house glassy-eyed, pale, and with shoulders hunched over. My grandmother took one look at me and said, “ Nickname within the family which I will not share with you , Are you sick?” My mother looked from across the room and said, “No, he’s exhausted.” We know what it is to be exhausted. We know what it is to be t

They had been cursed by God. Everyone knew that! They were visited by a plague that did not kill, but never seemed to end. Their families...

Jesus and the disciples continue their journey up to Jerusalem, and up to the Cross. Along the way, the Lord responds to their questions...

HOMILY IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH You will need to give him a name. You really need to name him today. It will be more complicated if you...

There’s no way around it. This week’s Gospel is an odd little story that leaves us scratching our heads, and wondering what’s up. While...

In our culture, we work very hard to create a world immune to suffering and pain.   We retreat into gated communities, embrace fantasy...

This is now the tenth day (or “ninth day” if preached at a Vigil Mass) since that horrible morning at Annunciation Church School when a...

In this climate of political divisiveness and social polarization, I hear many Christians longing for worship that is free of advocacy,...

I used to hear the words of Isaiah and think about a garden near Mexico City where statues of the indigenous tribes bring offerings to...

This reading seems jarring, unsettling— Frankly, it feels as if it belongs in our headlines, not our Gospel. In fact, given the ugly...

The TV ads are sounding off more intently, “It’s late summer. Take some time to relax and (use our product / go to our vacation site /...

Rev. Eslinger shares a homily, and commentary, "Pastoral and Rhetorical Elements in a Homiletic Example” It happened again. Someone in...

Today we meet Jesus praying in a certain place. And when he had finished his time of prayer, the disciples asked the Lord Jesus to teach...

As so often happens with scripture, we tend to glide over the surface of this story of Martha and Mary, smoothing out the rough corners,...

Who is my neighbor? The scholar in this passage asked Jesus this question because, like all of us, he knew that loving others is often...

“Now is the time for this mission,” Jesus announces. Seventy-two will be sent out, sent to towns and places he intends to go. Two by two,...

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul.  This is the patronal feast of the city of Rome, because both Peter and...