Foot-washer

Feast of St. Agnes https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/0121-memorial-agnes.cfm As you drive around town, you may have noticed giant banners hanging on the side of buildings that honor local celebrities.  These 60-foot-tall, vinyl banners are called “Hometown Heroes.” They have honored Muhammad Ali, Colonel Sanders, Jennifer Lawrence, Jack Harlow, Hunter S. Thompson, and 26 others over the last 24 years.  The banners have a big, black and white photo of the person with the caption, “Muhammad’s Louisville,” or whatever the first name of the honoree is.  The three criteria for inclusion in the program are that, 1. The person is from Louisville or is closely associated with the city. 2. The person has achieved something positive and noteworthy …. that is recognized far beyond the city's limits. 3. The person has given back to the city of Louisville. The banners cost $15,000 or as much as $90,000 to create and place. A fourth, unwritten criterion is that a group of sponsor...

St. Agnes Catholic Church  December 27/28, 2025 Feast of the Holy Family https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122825.cfm  Happy 3rd / 4th Day of Christmas, and happy Feast of the Holy Family.     Despite our lovely Christmas carols and our beautiful nativity scenes, the little town of Bethlehem would not sleep in heavenly peace for long.  We sing together with the angels, “peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!"  But the reality is that the powers of the world recognized Jesus, not as Lord at his birth, but as a threat to their rule.   From his hilltop fortress three miles from Bethlehem, King Herod looked down on royal David’s city and did not plan to come and adore Jesus.  Instead, the old dictator, who was in his mid-seventies and was wracked with illness, became increasingly desperate to cling to power.  He hatched a plan to massacre every boy two years old and younger in Bethlehem and its vicinity.  ...

Bellarmine University Our Lady of the Woods December 24, 2025 Christmas Eve Vigil Mass Readings “I just don't understand Christmas.... I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.” So says Charlie Brown in the 1965 cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas. My nine-year-old son, EJ, has been obsessed with Peanuts lately, and I have seen this short little special multiple times during Advent. Charlie’s friend Linus responds to his complaint, saying, "Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.” I think this show has lasting appeal because we can all relate, at various moments, to Charlie Brown’s morose feelings about Christmas. Though we are supposed to feel merry and bright, sometimes the garishness of the season and the relentlessness of it all can make us feel that our hearts are two sizes too sma...

St. Agnes Catholic Church  October 25/26, 2025 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102625.cfm The “Merchant of Death is Dead.”  That was the newspaper headline in 1888 announcing the passing of the Swedish chemist and industrialist who invented dynamite and made a fortune in selling military arms.  There was only one problem, the man, Alfred Nobel from Stockholm, was not actually dead.  As you might imagine, Nobel was quite surprised to read his own obituary in the newspaper and he was absolutely appalled to be described as a “merchant of death.”  That was not how he wanted to be remembered after he died.    This mistake provided a jolt to him, and he responded by founding and funding the now world-famous Nobel Prizes that recognize contributions in science, literature, and especially peace.  When we think about Nobel, it is worth asking ourselves, “if I died to today, what would my obituary say?”  Would it say...

Green Mass (Care for Creation) Wis 13:1-9 ; Psalm 104; Matthew 6:24-34 Seeing Christ in Creation Nine years ago, I led a group of Bellarmine University students on a study abroad trip to Peru. One night, we took a bus ride that wound through the Andes Mountains. The driver made an unscheduled stop in the middle of nowhere and let us all off to into a field. There was no moon that night. The inky darkness was broken only by the light of the stars. We gazed upon them and were unexpectedly disoriented. Instead of the familiar constellations that had accompanied us our whole lives in the northern hemisphere, there was an alien, antipodal sky with a strange configuration of unknown stars. Floating on the horizon just above the mountain peaks appeared the constellation known as the Crux, or the Southern Cross, composed of four of the brightest stars in the sky that form a distinct cross-shape.     Long before being introduced to Christianity, Peruvians held the cross as sacred...

St. Agnes Catholic Church September 21, 2025 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Short form of the Gospel) In the classic musical Fiddler on the Roof, the main character, a poor milkman named Tevye has a disagreement with his future son-in-law, Perchik.  Perchik, who is a Marxist, exclaims, “Money is the world’s curse!” To which Tevye replies, “Money a curse? Might I be afflicted and never recover."  Later in the musical, Tevye sings the song, “If I Were a Rich Man” in which he fantasizes about how different his life would be if he were wealthy.  Most of us have indulged in this same fantasy, playing the parlor game of “what would I do if won the lottery?”  Whether rich or poor, most people think their lives would be better with more money.  We do not live in a poor Ukrainian village of Jews in 1905, in constant danger of a pogrom, like the characters of Fiddler.  No, we live in the richest country in the world.  In fact, the United States is the richest c...