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Fr. Joe Breighner
Special to The Catholic Review
From people outside of the Catholic Church, I often hear the question: “Why do you Catholics make so much of Mary?” The simplest answer I can ever give is: “We honor Mary because God honored Mary.”
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Fr. Joe Breighner
Special to The Review
Jesus said that “the meek will inherit the earth.” Years ago, a woman I knew cynically responded, “The meek will inherit the earth when the bold are finished with it!” Her cynical comment may indeed be closer to the ‘truth’ as the way the world operates. Arrogance, power and wealth do indeed seem to run the world.
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Fr. Joe Breighner
Special to the Review
Spring really is “bursting out all over.” The death of the winter to the new life of spring is indeed a wonderful time to celebrate the death of Christ and now his new risen life in this Easter Season.
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Fr. Joe Breighner
Catholic Review columnist
I’ve always been touched that the first words the risen Lord spoke to the Apostles in the upper room were: “Shalom! Peace!”
In my humanness my first words might have been something like: “Hey, where were you guys? Weren’t you the ones who said you would stay with me, even if it meant dying with me?”
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Fr. Joe Breighner
Catholic Review columnist
Holy Week and Easter, with their powerful story of death and resurrection, are especially poignant this year. In a period of just over a month, three priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore have died: Father Chris Carney (whom I have already written about), Father Wayne Funk, pastor of St. John the Evangelist in Frederick, and Monsignor Jim Cronin, founding pastor of St. Isaac Jogues in Carney.
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Fr. Joe Breighner
Catholic Review columnist
The journey of Holy Week, which begins this Palm Sunday, is a journey of apparent tragedy. A young rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, who preached love, who healed the sick, raised the dead, and gave hope to the hopeless, is to be crucified as a false prophet and blasphemer. How unfair can life be?
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Fr. Joe Breighner
Catholic Review columnist
One of the challenges of Lent is that we are tempted simply to admire Jesus, his dying to self and living for others, but to forget to imitate him! Sometimes even keeping our Lenten penance can make us more self-conscious rather than less self-conscious. That’s why it’s important to constantly be on the alert for people who really do live for others.
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Fr. Joe Breighner
Catholic Review columnist
“You can’t be Irish and not know that eventually life will break your heart.” I’ve always attributed that quote to Pierre Salinger, the press secretary for President John F. Kennedy, on the occasion of Kennedy’s assassination.
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Fr. Joe Breighner
Catholic Review columnist
The journey of the season of Lent always includes my own journeying around the archdiocese. On Ash Wednesday I had Masses for the students at Maryvale, and later a Mass at Annunciation Parish. The first weekend of Lent I had the privilege of leading a parish mission at St. Joseph in Sykesville.
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Fr. Joe Breighner
Catholic Review columnist
There’s an interesting transformation that happens in stores right after the Christmas holidays. As the sights and sounds of Christmas disappear, suddenly store shelves are filled with Valentine’s decorations, candies and gifts.
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