Mary M. McGlone

Scripture for Life: The title of this feast, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, expresses the paradox of Christian faith. Christ's death revealed that evil is as dead as its works.

Scripture for Life: This may sound presumptuous, but all Jesus is asking is that we share in the banquet God prepares for all of us together.

Scripture for Life: What is our call from these Scriptures? Perhaps it is to let ourselves be tamed — over and again — by God and those whom God loves. 

Scripture for Life: Today's liturgy invites us to learn how to take hold of the freedom we have and to help it grow like bamboo, the fastest growing and one of the most useful plants on Earth. To do this, we need to cultivate new attitudes through asking and answering serious questions. 

Scripture for Life: Many times, we ask, "What would Jesus say?" In this case, we have an answer in today's Gospel. The disciples ask, "Teach us to pray."

Scripture for Life: When communications media bring the world into our homes and onto our phones, our sense of being neighbors has become global. Our neighbor is anyone we bother to see.

Scripture for Life: Evangelizers know that the reign of God they announce is real. They've experienced it in communion with God and others. They know it can't be proven, only experienced, and when it is experienced, it's contagious.

Scripture for Life: What if we considered our everyday activities as being like a procession manifesting the presence of Christ among us? 

Scripture for Life: As we celebrate our loving relationships, let us also take prayerful time to become more aware of how these loves make us who we are.

Today's feast reminds us that God not only chose to dwell among us, but to dwell in us. That mutual indwelling grows for a lifetime. It fulfills every human life.

Scripture for Life: As we come to the end of our Easter season, we can ask, "What have we learned? How have we changed? Has our faith in the resurrection of Christ given us courage and freed us from fear?"

Scripture for Life: It is one thing to say, "Love one another." But here, Jesus takes it to the extreme: "Love one another as I have loved you." Whoa! That definitely belongs to the new heaven and earth.

Scripture for Life: Let us call to mind and heart the insights or events that have moved us to express our faith in action, how our work contributes to Christ's mission, and the meaning of our baptism and communion. 

Scripture for Life: The Easter season offers us the opportunity to let ourselves be perplexed and even to doubt as we wait for the good news to saturate our souls.

Scripture for Life: The resurrection is not a mystery to be clung to, but a practice to develop in ever new and deeper ways. 

Today, evil seems so present that the faithful cry out with Jesus, "My God, why have you abandoned us?" In his account of Jesus' passion, Luke invites us to enter into the scene to learn what Jesus teaches his disciples.

Scripture for Life: As we move toward Holy Week, these readings invite us to approach the mysteries with eyes ready to perceive God's love working through everything — even the worst events imaginable. 

What do these readings offer us as we reach the halfway stage of our Lenten journey? First, they warn us against judging others, reminding us that nobody deserves the life God gives us and that God is never the source of suffering.

Scripture for Life: In these first two weeks of Lent, we've begun a new stage of our Holy Year pilgrimage. We've seen human frailty and the glory of what humanity can become. 

Scripture for Life: Lent is our time to allow divine love to touch us so deeply that we begin to see like Jesus did, and thus act in his name.