Jesus is a faithful Son of Israel. If his people are summoned, then so is he. What will become a basic pattern of our ...

Life and love are not earned by us, nor do we take them, but we receive these good gifts from God with gratitude, writes Msgr. Joseph Prior on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. By our baptism, we ...

Last Sunday (Jan. 12) most Christian churches celebrated the baptism of Jesus, an event in his life I always found confusing. I could never understand why Jesus was baptized. After all, Catholics ...

Who is Jesus? On this celebration of Jesus’ baptism, the Gospel of Matthew provides a clear answer: Jesus is the Son of God. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism includes details not found in the other ...

"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). This verse is from the Gospel of Matthew, one of the three synoptic Gospels in the New Testament of the Bible, and is about the ...

As the Christmas season comes to a close, the hearts of believers shift from meditating on the birth of the Lord to the beginning of his mission. This weekend we contemplate St. Matthew’s version of ...

To many Christians the baptism of Jesus seems almost as much of an enigma as it did to the Baptist. It serves as a precedent for our own baptism. It also forms an introduction to Christ’s ministry.

That’s a good question. The word baptize means “to wash.” Peter, however, tells us that baptism isn’t the washing of dirt from the body, but rather a cleansing of the conscience (1 Peter 3:21).

On the banks of the Jordan River where the Bible says Jesus was baptized, 15-foot-high reeds rustle in the wind. The site on the Jordanian side of the river looks much like the New Testament describes ...