Category Archives: Geoff Wood Blog

Inaugural Visions The great prophets of the Old Testament had what scholars call “an inaugural vision”, an experience that lifted them out of the monotone jargon of their everyday world to utter polyphonic oracles that widened and deepened the range … Continue reading →

Did you attend the wedding? Last week’s Gospel told of a wedding at Cana in Galilee among whose invited guests were Mary, Jesus and his disciples.  There must have been a lot of guests because right off the bat the … Continue reading →

Under the Stairs Until I was ten years old I lived with my parents in my grandmother’s house in Brewerytown, Philadelphia.  It had a cellar with furnace and coal bin and a workbench and tools.  It also served as a … Continue reading →

Looking for a Lost Jesus On the Sunday after Christmas we read about the Holy Family   making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem – Jesus being twelve years old, the bar mitzvah age.  On their return to Nazareth Mary and Joseph panic: … Continue reading →

Red eggs are a symbol of rebirth             Angela Lam is the daughter of a Chinese father (nicknamed Chee) and an American mother (nicknamed Lammie Pie).  Angela was raised in San Jose and is the author of a recent memoir: … Continue reading →

The Parish Mission             I don’t hear of them often anymore but way back before Vatican II (1960’s) parishes frequently scheduled a two week mission to be conducted by visiting priests from one or another religious order – Jesuit, Dominican, … Continue reading →

The Perpetual Divide The Church sees in the birth of Jesus 2000 years ago (and for that matter every year at Christmas) a turning point in the history of humankind.  With the arrival of Jesus and his Gospel among us … Continue reading →

Land where my fathers died / Land of the pilgrims’ pride Did you know that the Pilgrims who arrived in 1620 and whom we remember every Thanksgiving were not called Pilgrims until 1840?  At the time of their arrival they … Continue reading →

So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You could put it that way.  I prefer to put it this way: that I was born and came into this world to testify to the truth.”               … Continue reading →

The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry.             Ever since Vatican II we have been exposed (over a three year cycle) to an Old Testament reading at every Sunday Mass prior to … Continue reading →