Mary M. McGlone

Scripture for Life: The most basic definitions of suffering indicate that it is something that must be endured. Suffering implies a lack of control.

Scripture for Life: Laetare Sunday invites us to take time out to bask in God's great love, to sing songs of joy in a minor key that blend with harmonies of humility and gratitude.

Scripture for Life: The heart of the scandal Jesus caused that day with the purification of the temple was not in driving away the money changers but his proclamation that he, a human being, was the new temple.

Scripture for Life: For a brief moment, the disciples perceived that Jesus was God's ultimate messenger, the culmination of everything in their tradition.

Scripture for Life: Noah saw creation receive a fresh start and a promise. Eons later, Jesus proclaimed that something utterly new was happening, something that was about to change everything.

Scripture for Life: If ever Jesus had wanted to demonstrate that popularity was not his goal, touching a leper did the trick. We hear this story and remember unusual saints like Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa who performed similar actions in their day.

Scripture for Life: In today's readings, Job and Peter's mother-in-law — we'll call her Penny — offer us vital perspectives for dealing with the crises of our time. 

Scripture for Life: Metanoia springs from a vision of how God's future is breaking into the present. It is a faith-filled certainty that communion with God and all of creation is the ultimate storyline and meaning of history.

Scripture for Life: Whether or not we think it through, whether or not we ever imagine Jesus asking us, everything we do responds to Jesus' question, "What do you seek?"

Scripture for Life: Just as Jesus needed to apply the words of Isaiah to his own time, we look at these Scriptures to interpret what they have meant across the ages.

Scripture for Life: As we begin this new year, the Magi might be inviting us too to read the stars, to look for epiphanies of God among us.

Scripture for Life: When we envision all that happens in this story, we begin to realize that the Feast of the Holy Family is really not about a nuclear family of two parents and an only child, but a celebration of human community.

Scripture for Life: From the time of the Exodus until the days of Solomon, the God of Israel was believed to dwell in a tent among the people. The wandering Israelites encountered God’s glory in the cloud hovering around that mobile abode.

Scripture for Life: What genuine hope might God be offering us now? We need to contemplate 2020 with the eyes of a prophet, discerning the ways God has acted in our midst.

Scripture for Life: An old St. Nicholas Day tradition in Germany and Poland had children dress up like bishops and go out begging for alms for the poor — a surprisingly on-target approach to what God has in mind for the future of humanity.

Scripture for Life: Today's feast is celebrated under the leave-nothing-understated title of The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

Scripture for Life: The attitudes that allow for abuse of creation are the same that sanction the denigration of certain people on the basis of categories like age, gender, nationality, citizenship and, most especially, race.

Scripture for Life: Our society excels at helping us avoid confronting the friend St. Francis called Sister Death and her little cousins, Disappointment and Suffering.

Scripture for Life: Saints are set apart by the fact that, like Jesus and Mary, they have accepted their life as a vocation to holiness, an opportunity to receive and spread God's limitless love.

Scripture for Life: The alien, widow and orphan, the people most in need at our borders and in our midst, are the people through whom God wants to free us from the confines of our own tribes and idols.