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Three Secrets of Life
All over the Internet and social media are lists and quizzes. The following appeared on my news feed on Facebook in the last of couple hours: “Which Disney couple are you and your significant other?”;...
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The Church continues to celebrate!
The Christmas dinner dishes are piled up in the sink; the wrapping paper is an amoeba-shaped blob in the corner, and the family members are, either playing with their new gifts, trying on their new...
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'Focusing on the reality' of Life after life
It constantly amazes me how much there is to learn about the Catholic Faith. After 30 years in full-time ministry, a master’s degree, and years of Bible study I feel like I am just scratching the...
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Young adult ministry: no simple answers
I clearly remember the year I began to feel like an adult. Two events marked this transition. First, I was 27 years old and I was driving in the car with some high school youth, and a great song came...
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Even in darkest hours: We are never alone
A while back I had a strange confluence of experiences as two very different sources revealed a similar truth. During the same week in late July, I saw the Pixar animated movie Inside Out and a concert...
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Mercy is love put into action
There is a lot of talk about Pope Francis and mercy. Everywhere he goes he attracts so much attention for his acts of mercy. Whether it is his washing the feet of young people at a juvenile detention...
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Love is mercy put into action
One of the classes I had to take for my Masters degree in theology was an Old Testament class. For one of the papers we were tasked with picking some aspect of God and mining the text for information...
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Is being Catholic at the heart of our true identity?
We are often asked to introduce ourselves. Typically when this happens we give our name and where we work or go to school. Sometimes we give our family info, and other times we share a hobby or some...
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Lent's true goal
The use of ashes as a symbol of repentance goes back to the Old Testament. It is even mentioned in Matthew and Luke. We also see ashes as a sign of penance in the writings of Tertullian in the second...
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The power of Lectio Divina
It is often said that Catholics don’t read the bible or know much about Sacred Scripture. While in practice this might regrettably be the case, the Church not only does not discourage the reading of...
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Christian Roots of Apostolic succession
I recently had the pleasure of visiting my wife’s family in her home country of Germany. They live in a quaint village of about 5,000 people near France. The town is in a region that is filled with...
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Three-Minute Testimony, do you have one?
Before that providential night in December of 1981, I was a cradle Catholic who went to Mass weekly because my family did. I did not mind youth group activities, but I was not “all-in.”
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Experiencing the nearness of God through the Sacrament of Mercy
When Pope Francis called for a Jubilee Year of Mercy, I thought this was such a genius move by the pastor of the Church. What a blessing to have a whole year to focus the world on the mercy of God and...
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Giving thanks to God during our perpetual Advent
Every year it is the same. January is welcomed with a lot of optimism for the year ahead. I think about all the plans and events that await me and I wonder about what will come during the year.
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Share Your Gifts With Jesus by Letting Him be Your Guiding Light
With the birth of Jesus we celebrate so much. There is probably no other particular tradition more associated with Christmas than the giving and receiving of gifts.
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A cloud of witnesses cheers us on toward heaven
By virtue of spending more than 30 years in Youth and Young Adult Ministry in the Church I have garnered a nice following on social media. While there are times that my newsfeed is awash with vitriolic...
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Proclaim the Gospel - Starting With Those You Know
The Easter season is in full swing. After our journey through the desert of Lent and the solemn celebrations of the Triduum, we now bask in the glow of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Surprisingly modern insights from an old children's book
I recently started seeing a priest for spiritual direction. The first book he recommended was a pretty obvious choice, An Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales, filled with short,...
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Quelling the flames of hatred with courage, wisdom, and love
In the days following the horrific events in Charlottesville, Virginia, I found myself wanting to post some kind of response on social media but I was afraid whatever I said would be either too...
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Moments that rock our world
Most of our day-to-day life is filled with moments that pass us by with little to no notice. But, some moments come along that rock our world, change the direction of our lives, or are...
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A lifetime of treasure
Receiving a wrapped present, even after over 50 years of receiving them, is still cause for excitement, promise, and possibility.
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When leisure hits the snooze button
With Lent having started, it’s time to think about how we are going to observe this season of repentance and transformation. It’s traditional to fast from food as well as add spiritual practices for...
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The rest of the story
I loved listening to radio personality and newscaster Paul Harvey. His broadcasts usually concluded with the tag line "and now you know the rest of the story."
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Staying faithful after graduation
Change can be exciting and tumultuous, often at the same time. In some respects, the transitions that come with graduating from high school and college can be some of the toughest to navigate.
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Seeking to Know
We all know people who do not go to church or even believe in God. They could be our neighbors, coworkers, classmates, friends, and even family members.
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God gives us a compass (and not GPS)
Have you ever felt lost or directionless? This feeling can come from many places. Maybe the current abuse scandal in the Church has you reeling. Many college students feel lost when trying to pick a...
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His majesty is revealed in poverty
It is rather startling to realize the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Savior of the World, the Word made Flesh, the very Son of God, was born and did not have His nursery all set up by His parents.
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Be You. Be Holy.
Many years ago, on a silent retreat at Montserrat, I heard an interesting thing from the priest leading the prayer talks. He was expounding on the idea of imitating Jesus. This notion is not about us...
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Time Well Spent
Thanks to Lent 2019 I have recently gotten into listening to Catholic podcasts.
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The Joy of Missing Out
I just spent an extended time away from most social media, television, and other digital information/entertainment services.
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Holy: the Eucharistic call to be saints
What is the goal of your life? We hear a lot about five-year plans and 10-year plans and even 20-year plans, but what about your 100-year plan?
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The fast life
In his work Apology, Plato describes something Socrates once said: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Based on this phrase, most of my life has been a waste.
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Absence at the table
I imagine we all can point to people who inspire us in our faith. For me, one of the first people I ever knew who was super serious about their faith was my Uncle Dean.
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Developing a missionary mindset
The theme for this 50th anniversary of the Diocese of Fort Worth is: The Eucharist Makes Us the Church. While reflecting on this, I remembered a homily I heard years ago where the congregation was...
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Lent? I give up
Over the years I have tried a lot of different options in my attempt to have a fruitful Lent. I have given up things like specific foods and even food groups, the snooze button, television, music, and...
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Powered by the Spirit
There have not been too many positives aspects from the stay-in-place COVID-19 quarantine life of the last few months, but for me, one bright spot has been getting to tune into Mass from various places...
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A good shepherd in uncertain times
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the parable of the lost sheep.
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Everything's Gonna Be Alright
This year seems to be one crisis on top of another, and it seems like each week brings another to the forefront.
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A verse a day keeps the fear away
I have heard for years that there are 365 occurrences in the Bible of the phrase “Fear not.”
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A year in the boat
As the one-year mark comes and goes from dealing with the pandemic, it has caused me to reflect on the past 12 months.
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Up to heaven, down to earth
I was recently listening to a presentation on some of the great Old Testament figures by Bishop Robert Barron.
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On our common priesthood
While attending the ordination of our six new priests I was reflecting on something I learned in a theology class years ago.
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Success: neither perfect nor good enough
You’ve probably heard a few variations on this phrase: “There are two kinds of people in this world.”
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He came for me
God is love. It’s not just that God is great at loving, but rather, God IS love.
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The Eucharist, spark and flame of our faith
In my early 20s I was lucky enough to have a group of friends to attend Mass with every Sunday.
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My greatest temptation: a Lenten reflection
I got baptized when I was three weeks old; I went to Mass and CCD every week as a kid; I had a pretty serious conversion experience when I was 16 years old; I have a master’s degree in theology; and I...
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Happiness is the other kind of love
I think it is safe to say that we all desire to be happy, but what is the path to happiness?
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Superheroes and saints
Superhero movies are some of the highest grossing movies over the last few decades.
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The advent of heaven
There is an advent that many people experience that in some ways is more excruciating than expectant, more halting than hopeful, more restless than restful and yet, at the same time, it is more...
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