Fr. Joe Dailey

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"The daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

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The heights of despair and the depths of depression will be leveled out. 

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Advent begins in the dark.  In this dark landscape, we are invited to describe life “on earth as it is," to name the seeming  absence of God. We sit in darkness, longing for light.  We …

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“Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice,” Jesus said. And Pilate asked Jesus, in a line that is omitted from today’s reading: “What is truth?” The Greek word for truth li…

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Last week Jesus was in the Temple, sitting opposite the Treasury. Now Jesus is  opposite the Temple mount, on the Mount of Olives. The prophet Zechariah declared that the last days will…

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The widow says nothing, and yet her actions speak volumes. The Greek word for her "giving her whole life" prefigures the sacrifice Jesus is about to make. 
It is both a judgment on the t…

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Rabbi Rami Shapiro points out that the four-letter Hebrew Name of God -  Y-H-V-H, yod-hey-vav-hey - when written vertically, takes on the shape of a human being.  Each one of us is the …

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Pope Francis, who has been reading these same passages in Mark’s Gospel, had a close encounter with this Gospel during his papal audience this past Wednesday.

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James Carroll, in his new memoir, “The Truth at the Heart of the Lie,” recalls this experience.  On his first visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, he was taken aback by the rudely…

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The prohibitions are like the bottom of a glass. If the glass does not have a bottom, everything just spills out; it can’t hold anything.

The prohibitions create a boundary or container …

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The children are at the center of the three passion predictions.  Jesus is teaching us what it means to follow the Messiah and therefore, what it means to be church.

I am presiding at th…

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Whenever you want to draw lines in order to mark who is outside the kingdom and who is inside, always remember: Jesus is on the other side of the line! 

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Jesus calls them into a circle around him - we infer the circle from the placing of the child in the middle - and teaches by word and deed. 

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Both narratively and geographically, today’s Gospel stands at a crossroads. It’s right in the middle of Mark, almost exactly halfway through the story. 

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As if he could understand Hebrew, Jesus said to the man Ephphetha. "Be opened" is not addressed to the ears; it is a command to the heart. When the heart opens, immediately the ears are…

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Pope Francis quotes the 19th-century composer Gustav Mahler, who said, "Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire."

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I have Mass on Sunday at Church of the Holy Spirit in Highland, MI. This is revised version of the homily for the parish Mass.

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The protesting disciples do not rightly perceive the flesh of which Jesus speaks. They see only Jesus' flesh; they do not see "the Word become flesh," the Good News of God dwelling amon…

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As Mary proclaimed in the Magnificat, “God has remembered his promise of mercy.”This promise is being fulfilled in Mary.

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"No one has ever seen God," (John 1:18)  but in Jesus we see the human face of God who desires to gather us.  Jesus is coming into our midst as the one who is giving himself away so tha…