Baptism of Fire

“Baptism of Fire”
Luke 12:49-50 “in a snailshell”
Thursday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
©️2021 Gloria M. Chang

I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!

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Paradox of Peace

“Paradox of Peace”
A reflection on Luke 12:49-53
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
©️2022 by Gloria M. Chang

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do

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A Feast for Watchful Servants

“A Feast for Watchful Servants”
A reflection on Luke 12:35-38
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
©️2022 by Gloria M. Chang

“Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.

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The Wind of the Spirit


Gian Lorenzo Bernini – Dove of the Holy Spirit
(ca. 1660, stained glass, Throne of St. Peter, St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican)

29th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday (Year II)

Luke 12:54-59

As a weather vane points in the direction of the wind, Jesus points in the direction of the Holy Spirit (pneuma). … Read the rest

Playing with God’s Aliases

Fool for Christ, Detail from Icon of Deesis and Assembly of Saints, Constantinople, 15th C. (Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai)

29th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday

Luke 12:39-48

In the marbled and malleable world of metaphor and analogy, God changes guises faster than James Bond.… Read the rest

Our Eternal Inheritance

Parable of the Rich Fool

Ephesians 2:1-10; Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”

Jesus refused to get roped into a property dispute between brothers.… Read the rest

Before the Angels of God

Russian icon of St. Stephen

28th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday (Year II)

Luke 12:8-12 

Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.”

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More Precious than Sparrows

28th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday (Year II)

Luke 12:1-7

Meanwhile, so many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot.

Sounds like rush hour in a New York City subway. In another manuscript of Luke, the crowds were “choking each other.”… Read the rest