When we think of our duty to worship God on Sundays, we probably consider the time we are “giving” to Him. Sunday Mass takes on average about an hour – some places less, some places more – or approximately 1/168th of our week. Even so, this minimum requirement of the Church to worship God each Sunday is not so minimal to some (we know that less than 25% of baptized Catholics in the U.S. attend Mass every week). And while it is true that many make sacrifices to attend Mass in the midst of the …

You will, without doubt, succeed, if you never lose sight of the great consoling truth that nothing happens in this world but by the command of God, or at least, with His divine permission; and that whatever He wills, or permits turns infallibly to the advantages of those who are submissive and resigned [to God]. – Jean-Pierre de Caussade.   I have recently been working my way through a spiritually intense book called Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade. Caussade makes a reference to Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob and half-brother to …

Have you ever come to a point where something you thought you knew became a thing that you realize you never really knew like you thought you did. I know this might seem like a convoluted question. And maybe it is. I just chalk it up to the mystery of Jesus Christ. Recently I was preparing prayer for a parish staff meeting. The daily Gospel reading for the prayer was part of the Bread of Life Discourse in the Gospel of John-namely John 6: 44-51. Jesus says “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors …

Sixth Sunday of Easter: May 5, 2013 Gospel: John 14:23-29 Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. “I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind …

I ask my students at Xavier this question fairly regularly. When we read various creation stories, some of them quite bloody and violent and compare them to the accounts in Genesis. When we talk about the stories of the birth and crucifixion of Jesus. When we talk about suffering. What kind of God do we believe in? I get the impression that many people take a pretty dark view of God. They seem to think that bad things happen because God wants them to. God is teaching us a lesson or punishing us or testing …

Pope Francis is a wonderful example of a “New Evangelist.” One way that the Pope is effectively communicating the Gospel in the modern world is through the image. Compelling images of Pope Francis being a simple disciple of Christ have spread across the internet like wildfire over the past few months. How many of us have not been moved – inspired – edified – and challenged by the images we have seen of Pope Francis riding the bus, embracing a handicapped child, washing the feet of a prisoner, or blessing an expectant mother? Another way …

Late one recent Friday night, I was waiting in the high school parking lot for my daughter’s team bus to return from a meet when I saw 5 young men pull in near me. Four of them stripped off their shirts while the fifth began painting huge letters on their chests.  P-R-O-M.  It was about 30 degrees outside, so they hustled back into their cars until the bus was visible down the road, at which time the lettered four hopped into the bed of a pick-up and stood in line, while the 5th produced a …

The Lent-Easter Cycle in our Catholic liturgical year is my favorite time of that year. The liturgies are full of meaningful celebrations that focus on the challenges that life presents us. The Paschal Mystery, which we celebrate at this time, brings forward the deeper realities of our lives as persons, as communities, and as Christians. It reminds and makes present in the Eucharistic celebrations of this time our experience of God’s Love being among us in all the struggles, difficulties, joys, and ecstasy that arise in our daily experience. One of the essentials I try …

April 28, 2013: Fifth Sunday of Easter Gospel: John 13:31-33a; 34-35 When Judas had left them, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, …

Trite expressions betray our true position, we just rarely pay attention to what these banal formulations are actually saying about us.   I’m as guilty as anyone else in this regard.    Lately, I’ve been trying to take note of my own ways of speaking within our common culture, in light of subtle – yet immanently present – secular ideologies.   Take, for example, what is perhaps the most common excuse for “dating around” (i.e. jumping head first into a number of quasi-serious relationships with intensive physical and emotional attachment): “I am trying to find …