Rev. George G. Brooks

  This coming Thursday, Christians celebrate Jesus giving to his Church the sacrament of his body and blood. The Holy Eucharist is both a remembrance and a proclamation of his death. Both are included in the earliest reference we have to the Holy Eucharist, from a letter of... Read More →

  On the first Sunday in Lent this year, many churches will read St. Luke’s account of our Lord’s forty days’ temptations in the wilderness, which is preceded by a genealogy of Jesus (Lk. 3:23-38). St. Matthew’s Gospel has a genealogy too (Mt. 1:1-17), proceeding from... Read More →

  At the time of our Lord’s birth, Jews were present in most major cities throughout the known world. This was called the “Diaspora,” which the story of Pentecost refers to in the Book of Acts (2:1-11), where we read that, “Staying in Jerusalem were devout Jews of every... Read More →

    This year the last Sunday in November (in the Catholic calendar) is the last Sunday of the Christian year, the feast of Christ the King. Twenty-first century Christians believe in Jesus Christ as King though most do so with little understanding of the nature of real... Read More →

    Because Catholics celebrate the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7, the whole month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary. Originally called the feast of “Our Lady of Victory,” it was established by Pope St. Pius V to celebrate the defeat of invading... Read More →

      Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)   This sentence from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians contains an insight into what sin is, specifically for Christians. Sin is a “grieving” of the... Read More →

  Last week, we celebrated the 248th anniversary of our nation’s Declaration of Independence, a bold act of defiance that ultimately, after eight long years of revolutionary war, resulted in Great Britain’s recognition of the sovereignty of the United States in the Treaty of... Read More →

    This last week in May, either on Thursday or on Sunday, Catholics celebrate Christ’s gift of himself to us in the Holy Eucharist, the sacrament of his Body and Blood. The Feast of Corpus Christi was established in 1264 by Pope Urban IV, who asked St. Thomas Aquinas... Read More →

    The season that extends for forty days from Easter Sunday to the feast of the Ascension celebrates the time when Jesus revealed his resurrection in many ways. The four gospels give us only a selection of our Lord’s appearances—just enough to illustrate their great... Read More →

    The gospel reading for the second Sunday in Lent, this year on February 25 in the “Common Lectionary” (used by Catholics and several other churches), comes from St. Mark’s account of the transfiguration of Jesus, who took Peter, James, and John up a “high mountain”... Read More →