Juneteenth and the Body and Blood of Christ
Juneteenth is the “oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States when Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.” This year it had the happy occurrence of falling on the same…
Evil Begets Evil and Sin Begets Sin: The Buffalo Tops Friendly Market Shooting
The local sheriff called the racist-motivated Tops shooting “pure evil.” He was right to describe it as such because we can never stress enough that just as the murder of the innocent is pure evil, racism is also pure evil. Evil begets evil and sin begets sin. The evil and sin of racism that was…
Expect to be Loved, But also Expect the Truth: In Light of Recent Pro-Choice Protests at Masses
I don’t know how many pro-choice protests that were reportedly going take place at Masses this Sunday actually happened, but try as some might to come to heart of our Catholic life that is the Mass and interrupt it, one thing is true (since some targeted Catholic churches). The Gospel of Life proclaimed by Jesus…
Black Catholic Saint Feast Day: St. Benedict the Moor, O.F.M., “The Holy Black” (April 4) – Brief Personal Reflection on His Feast Day
Today the Church celebrates the feast day of Black Catholic saint Benedict the Moor (1526-1589), a Sicilian Franciscan friar of slave origin. In his early life Benedict was often ridiculed by others for his humble background and for his skin color, but he bore this suffering patiently in a truly dignified and Christian way. Benedict,…
Deep Lent
Ladies and gents, if you came to church this morning and saw the statues and pictures in your parishes covered with cloths, then you know we have entered into Passiontide, what I will refer to as “Deep Lent”. The further we go into Lent the deeper we progress into the reason for Lent in the…
“Goodbye Alleluia” and Other Pre-Lent Vibes
We sung this cool hymn (fully pictured below) at evening prayer that was essentially about saying “goodbye” to the alleluia on the last day before Lent begins. The third stanza about how “Alleluia cannot always be our song while here below” is a great prelude into Lent and its mysteries of Christ’s journey to Jerusalem…
The Presentation. Christmas. Black History Month.
As tonight ends the Feast of the Presentation, traditionally before the coming of the reformed liturgy the Christmas season went all the way past Epiphany and ended on today, the Presentation. That is why I have kept the Madonna and Child as my social media pages’ profile images up until now from Christmas Day. The…
Christ has been presented at the temple! Indeed, He has been presented at the temple! And Classes begin again.
Happy Feast of the Presentation of our Lord! Today the seminary gather outside the chapel for the solemn prayers, blessing, and procession before Mass. The Lord was presented. We presented ourselves before the Lord at the Eucharist. Then we went to present the Lord in our various ministries (Wednesdays are the days we go and…
Epiphany, MLK Day, and The Colored Kingdom of God
Here’s something good from the Catholic tradition that fits this week’s celebration of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King. Whether you celebrated it on Sunday or Thursday, this year the Church celebrated Epiphany as she does each year. Though we mostly think of Epiphany dealing with the visit of the Magi to…
A Chance Encounter
Yesterday during a break in the part of our program with interfaith chaplains, I met a Black Protestant military chaplain of who told me I was the first African American dude studying for the Catholic priesthood he’s ever met! Glad God arranged things to let this encounter happen.I don’t mind being a unicorn for the…