The Great Gift “It’s not fair!” said my son, holding up his sixth-grade homework. “What’s not fair?” I answered, knowing his homework-stalling tactics. “Adam and Eve really messed us up!” he shot back. “Please, just do your homework,” I said, adamantly. That day at school, they had talked about the Garden of Eden and Adam's fall from grace, which affects [...]
The Kingdom Needs You Jesus’ Heart, ever overflowing with love, is moved with pity for the people before Him. He sees their struggles, their anguish, their abandonment, their desires. He sees that they are “like sheep without a shepherd,” and it is clear that there must be more “laborers for the harvest.” Jesus is fulfilling the ancient promises to erect [...]
The Eucharist: Flesh and Blood Is your parish celebrating this Solemnity with a Corpus Christi Procession? This traditional way of honoring the Eucharist goes back to the 1300’s, and is a beautiful public proclamation of our faith in Christ’s real presence in the Sacrament. What exactly does our Faith teach about the Eucharist (which comes from the Greek word for [...]
That All May be Saved In today's Gospel we read perhaps the most quoted verse of Scripture, that "God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life." It's printed on t-shirts, coffee mugs, those fancy picture frames that everyone has hanging in their [...]
Filled with the Same Spirit A week before Pentecost in 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed by a white police officer. Despite raucous public outcry over how Floyd was treated in his last moments of life and his resulting death, this was not the only, but rather the most publicized, situation of what many considered racial profiling [...]
The Great Commission "He would be everywhere, whenever his friends gathered to pray. He would continue to act through them just as he promised: forgiving sins, sharing mercy, bringing young and old into the embrace of eternal life through Baptism, and feeding their very souls with himself, the Bread of Life. He would remain on earth through his Church." (Great [...]
Background Music: Life, Love and Prayer “I live and you will live,” Jesus tells his disciples. You and I are both alive right now, so this seems easy to wrap our heads around. This is life, right? I’m living it right now. Is there more to life? The fullest life that Jesus reveals is so much more profound than we [...]
Spiritual and Religious The question is often asked why you need religion at all. Can't you just be a spiritual person and go directly to God? Especially in the wake of scandal, doesn't it seem like all human institutions have failed in one way or another to transmit the Gospel to all people at all times? Years ago a very [...]
Diligent Faith Around this time five years ago, our first granddaughter was baptized. Public gatherings were troublesome in pandemic days. Events that should have brought great rejoicing were muted by the fear of disease. Our pastor offered a private ceremony in which ten masked family members could attend. We stressed over who the ten should be. Our immediate family was [...]
A Well of Mercy How I wish I could be Thomas at the moment when Jesus says, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side” (John 20:27). Thomas touched Divine Mercy when he touched Christ’s side. Jesus invited him to put his hand into the very wound from which blood [...]