UCA News Podcast

Once called by Christ and if we have responded openly and generously, it is incumbent on us to remain alert to where God appears in our lives and what he asks of us newly. What God asks us never rema…

We are in a place in Matthew’s Gospel where the prophetic impulse in the Gospel is strongest. Jesus is declaring “Woe to you…” for being such two timing hypocrites and wants to show his followers how…

How do we come to faith? Everyone has their own mysterious biography - the people and events who spark interest and openness to Jesus’ presence and message, the arresting experiences that force us to…

Jesus wants an alignment between what his followers say and what they do in their following of him. He wants us to be sincere and authentic. Sincerity and authenticity are relatively modern ideas - a…

If Jesus is indeed who he and the Church say he is, then there really is no place else to go. If he is real, then any alternative is unreal. We have no choice. If we accept the truth of Jesus' divini…

Following Jesus requires making and living from a real choice: can we entrust our lives into God’s hands and leave to God making something of the surrender and sacrifice into God’s hands of all that …

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan continues to dominate headlines across Asia and the world. The struggle against rig…

Today’s Gospel is a very brief summary of just what following Jesus entails for us as relive our discipleship of Jesus. Are we ready to delay our own gratification and delay rewarding ourselves for f…

It can appear very simple: following Jesus is about two central things - loving God and loving our neighbor. And while that’s true, it’s simplistic to say that’s all it is because following those two…

Clearly there was puzzlement in the early Christian community over why the Chosen People were not rushing the callow Christ. What are they to make it? The only answer the Gospel gives is that people …

We have a sequence of Gospels in these days that underline what a paradoxical, surprising and unpredictable message Jesus is proposing. Jesus is not saying that following him will be simple and yield…

It is difficult for us humans - apparently so well endowed and swell resourced - to discover and accept that all the gifts and blessings we have can bean impediment for us in our faith journey. The o…

We are caught in a whirlwind of change. New realities call for new responses, but where are hints of how to go about them? Perhaps looking at the past will help us move toward the future. But, when w…

It is difficult for us to see and name much less surrender what stands between us and God’s deeper embrace of our lives. We are often blind to what blocks our growth as loving people building God’s K…

Every feast of the Church, no matter what its name, is ultimately a celebration of what God has done in Jesus Christ. The Assumption is such a feast, an encouraging reminder of what Christ has done f…

Today’s Gospel cuts straight to the heart of who Mary is for us and why we should be so grateful to her: she embodies discipleship and shows us the way to follow her son, Jesus. The story of the Assu…

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes.

Religious and ethnic minorities are enduring abuses and discrimination in various Asian nations, while Catholics are on…

Today’s Gospel reading at Masses, curiously enough, about as appropriate as a reading could be for the saint whose feast we celebrate today - St. Maximilian Kolbe. He was executed in a Nazi concentra…

Jesus’ teaching on marriage seems very harsh and restrictive if it is taken literally. But understood as a teaching as applying to all who might ambition to marrying as God would have us do, this tea…

The forgiveness we are called on to offer those who have wronged is is a reflection of the forgiveness God has offered us. Forgiveness is the fluid of our faith life - flowing to us, through us and t…