[Click here for readings.] Last week, the music world lost a giant: jazz legend Dave Brubeck.  He died Wednesday, the day before his 92nd birthday.  He was the first jazz artist to sell a million records; he was only the second one, after Louis Armstrong, to make the cover of TIME magazine. He was also [...]

[Click here for readings.] If you wanted to sum up the meaning of Advent, this beautiful and haunting season of waiting, you could do it with just one question: What are you waiting for? Most people, I suspect, would say, very simply, we’re waiting for Christmas, the birth of Jesus. But the gospel this Sunday [...]

[Click here for readings.] This Sunday, on the Solemnity of Christ the King, I was preparing to preach about how royalty is really alien to us Americans, how the concept of a King is something foreign to our sensibilities. But an experience Friday proved me wrong. I made the mistake of going to the mall [...]

[I'm not preaching this weekend, but here's my homily from the same Sunday in 2009. -- DGK] We hear this gospel story, about the widow’s mite, and tend to think of it as a lesson in giving, and great sacrifice. And that is true.  It’s a lesson we need to hear, especially in these hard [...]

[Click here for readings.] By remarkable coincidence —or maybe divine planning —this gospel reading is as relevant and as urgent as this morning’s headlines. In this passage from Mark’s gospel, a scribe asks Jesus to name the most important commandment.  Jesus not only tells him that, but also tells him the second most important one, [...]

[Click here for readings.] Yesterday morning, I went to the store to pick up a few things.  While I was in line, a little girl came in, six or seven years old, wearing a pink costume and carrying a small plastic pumpkin.  She tried to get the attention of the guy behind the counter “Trick [...]