The gospel reading for this Sunday is the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14-30). The talents are distributed to three persons: one gets five, the second two, and the third one talent, “each according to their ability”. According to Sr. Carolyn Osiek even one talent was a large amount of money. To note one scriptural source that she mentions, she says that just one talent, according to the book of Maccabees (8:11), was “the price for ninety slaves” (Give Us This Day, p.164, November 2020). Why, then, would the servant who had the one talent go off and bury it? What is the dynamic motivating his action? We are told that the person with the one talent perceived his master as ‘demanding’, ‘harvesting where he did not plant’, and ‘out of fear’ he went and buried the talent. Perhaps one reflection out of this gospel is to ask ourselves how does fear control, hinder, or immobilize us in doing something with the one talent, the gift God has given us?

Once again for this Sunday’s Eucharist we have very rich readings. In the gospel (Mt 14:22-33), Jesus leaves his disciples after the feeding of the multitudes and goes off to pray. The disciples, meanwhile, get in the boat and head for the opposite shore, without Jesus. Very quickly a storm erupts with strong winds. Jesus later starts out towards them walking on the water and they become fearful before this sight. Seeing their fear, Jesus says: ‘Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.’

Readings of the day: RB 60 The Admission of Priests into the MonasteryMass: Ac 6:1-7; Resp Ps 33; Jn 6:16-21


It had already grown dark, and Jesus had no

Readings of the day: RB 16Mass: Romans 4:1-8; Resp. Psalm 32; Luke 12:1-7
I don’t know how many times our Lord said, “Do not be afraid,” but I like to think he said it at least 365 times, once for each day of the year. It seems Jesus knew we needed to hear those words over, and over again. In today’s passage from Saint Luke, Jesus tells us two times! Even so, we spend a considerable amount of time being afraid, and worrying about this and that. Then we are given unhelpful advice from too many

“Her willingness was her magnificence.  This we know and marvel at when we recall how You first came to us,” (Upon A Luminous Night, Christine Rogers, p.9).  Mary’s willingness was echoed in her ‘yes’…her ‘yes’, says the poem further on, “to a thing she only partly understood” (p.9).  This ‘yes’, which was encirc