Province of St. Albert the Great, USA
Profile picture for user joe trout

Br. Joseph Trout, OP

Br. Joe is the Socius of the Province, the Provincial's "right hand man."

Videos

6 Oct • Dependent on God's Mercy

Jesus said, "whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." Children are dependent on others for the basic needs of their lives, and they know it. We are dependent on God's mercy to to be able to live in the kingdom of God. Do we always remember that?

The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Br. Joe Trout, OP breaks open the readings for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. First, the prophet Isaiah tells a people who were suffering in darkness that God will send a messiah to save them. In the Gospel, Jesus does the things that show that he is the promised messiah, though he does not want everyone to know yet. Then, the second reading is from the Letter of James, a "brother" of Jesus, who does not claim to be the new messiah to carry on Jesus' work. Rather, James claims that Jesus is still alive and is alone the messiah, and is working though him to keep bringing about the kingdom.

3 Sept • Should I worry about demons?

In Luke's Gospel we hear of Jesus expelling demons. Is demonic possession real, or was it just some form of mental illness? What we can certainly say is that if demons are real, we don't have to worry about them if we trust in Jesus, because Jesus has power over all.

The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Br. Joe Trout breaks open the readings for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, tying the disparate readings together—Amos is not a professional prophet, just trying to do God's will; Jesus calls the apostles to trust him and follow his work; and Paul reminds us that it is God who lavishes grace upon us. Thus, we must ask ourselves: is this God working through me, or are these my own ideas that are getting in the way of God working through me?

Readings: Amos 7:12–15, Ephesians 1:3–14, Mark 6:7–13