St. Paul tells that “Where sin abounds, grace overflows all the more.”  That certainly seems to sum up what we are experiencing from within the Catholic Church today. Ten years ago, the twin towers fell from the sky, the child abuse scandal broke, and… my class graduated from high school.  Since then, we have continued to see rising societal anxiety and falling Mass attendance.  Music has gotten even more vulgar.  Movies have gotten even more violent and sexually explicit.  Churches are being forced to close, cluster, and serve more people with fewer resources.  The housing …

 ”See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.  Yet so we are.” (1 Jn 3:1) Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. I have said this before, and I will say it again, because it is foundational to my faith in my God.  I think it is key to our understanding of who we are as God’s people. If we want to get a glimpse of how much God loves and cares for us just look at …

This Sunday’s Gospel passage from John 15 is one of my favorites as a husband and father. The reminder that my life is not about me – that it must be laid down for my wife and children – is something I can’t hear enough.  But how perfect it is that we’ll hear this awesome Gospel on Mother’s Day?  This passage, it seems to me, is the very definition of motherhood.  Love.  Not syrupy sweet, mushy, “I love pizza” kind of love.  Not the counterfeits that pass for love on TV. No, I mean real, …

Our 8-year old son made his First Communion this weekend.  At the beginning of Mass, Father Geoff prayed an opening prayer that caught me off-guard. “These children who come to the table of the Lord for the first time receive in Holy Communion the pledge of salvation offered on the day of their baptism.” My eyes flew wide-open.  I looked down at my son; looked over at Kate; looked back to the baptismal font in the back of church where Father was still standing . . . and uneasiness gripped me. My son was baptized …

My neighbor Paul is an independent, cantankerous eighty-five-year old German Baptist farmer.   It’s hard to believe that I’ve known him and his wife Mary for our entire adult lives, and that when we moved to our place thirty years ago they weren’t much older than we are now! Last week, however, his beloved Mary unexpectedly went into cardiac arrest and became nonresponsive.  She had already been suffering the effects of Alzheimer’s, so the family made the difficult decision to call Hospice in. When I later stopped by the farm to see the family, Paul was …

“The State of our Unions” is the title of a December 2011 research report from the National Marriage Project of the Institute for American Values and the University of Virginia. The researchers set out to answer these three questions: “Is it emotionally easier to parent alone in a world in which a good marriage seems increasingly out of reach? Is parenthood itself an obstacle to a good marriage? What are the social, cultural, and relational sources of marital success among today’s parents?” According to the study, the top five predictors of marital satisfaction for married …

This is the time of year when rumors swirl around about priestly assignments. Of the men to be ordained this spring, it is likely that some will be assigned to teach in high schools. In the 1960s and 70s it was rare for a newly ordained priest not to begin his priestly ministry as a high school teacher. During the 1980s and 90s that become less common (though today we have at least four priests teaching full time in our schools and a couple more who teach part time). When I was ordained in 2009, …

I’ve heard friends who have gotten married before me complain about how hard it is to find a modest, “altar-appropriate” wedding dress that’s still flattering and stylish. Now that I’m engaged to be married and have casually started browsing wedding dresses, I’ve found this to be true for myself. The overwhelming majority of dresses out there just miss the mark on modesty. I’ve also had trouble with bridesmaid dresses. When I was preparing for my sister’s wedding last fall (I was her maid of honor), I tried on what seemed like tons of dresses before …

The Easter Season is many things to many people.  For the not so religious it is a time for shopping for the latest fashions, planning and executing the perfect egg hunt, and finding all the best-tasting chocolate creations that now come in all forms. For the Catholic religious, it begins with Lent, leading up to Holy Week with a hard-core press of services from Holy Thursday until Easter morning Mass.  Then we begin the Great Fifty Days of Easter on our way to Pentecost. A great part of my Lenten season, Easter and the beginning …

On the Third Sunday of Easter I pulled out the remnants of our Easter candy stash. Everything fits nicely into a zip-lock bag now and the kids know when it’s coming.  They got really excited and started to exclaim, “Happy Easter!” Then my almost three-year-old asked me, “Mom, is it STILL Easter?” “You bet,” I replied.  “He is RISEN!!” This time she was a little exasperated, “Mom, Easter is a really long day.” Yes, Easter is a really long day.  One big, really long party and we’re supposed to keep on celebrating Jesus’ Resurrection long …