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Father Harry Hagan

King David

The Penitential Psalms

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Jesus opens his ministry with a call to repentance: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). Unlike John the Baptist, who called for repentance so that the Kingdom might come, Jesus calls people to repentance because the Kingdom has come among Read More
Crucifixion

‘The Scepter Shall Never Depart from Judah’

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“The scepter shall never depart from Judah, / or the mace from between his feet, / Until tribute comes to him, / and he receives the people’s obedience.” — Genesis 49:10 Just before Jacob dies in Egypt, he blesses all his sons and makes Joseph promise to return his bones to the land promised Abraham. Read More
Moses

Glory in the Bible and Priests

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After destroying the golden calf, Moses returns to the top of Mount Sinai and asks the Lord, “Please let me see your glory!” (Ex 33:18). The Lord, so testy earlier in the chapter, does not object but responds eagerly: “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim my name, ‘LORD,’ Read More
happy priests

Happy to Be a Priest!

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In 2018, I decided to make an exhibit of paintings called “Happy to Be a Priest.” Just as the fall semester began, the media became filled with Pennsylvania’s report on the sexual abuse by priests. I felt particularly bad for new seminarians. You come to a seminary because you feel that being a priest is Read More
Lamb of God

Mercy’s Many Meanings

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Mercy flows like a great river out of the Old Testament into the New, where it overflows its banks. The word “mercy” appears in the New American Bible Revised Edition (2010) 296 times in the Old Testament and another 43 times in the New Testament. Like the Mississippi, which gathers its water from various tributaries, Read More
sheep

Exploring Psalm 23

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Literary language is sticky in a way that ordinary language is not. Although most priests do not think of their homilies as literary language, a homily, at least a good homily, is a sticky text. It can stick to different people in different ways and connect these people in a common experience. Psalm 23 is Read More
Psalms

Going Deeper into the Psalms

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People often expect the Book of Psalms to be “The Lord is my Shepherd” times 150. As those who read them regularly know, it is a crazy quilt of many different and unexpected voices, and not all of them happy. From time to time, we all need to remember that they were originally the prayers Read More