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Sing a new song
It has been six months since Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first pope to take the name Francis, and what a six months has it been.
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How was Jesus born in you? When was your epiphany?
I recently saw an explanation of Advent that said something to the effect that “If you’re tired of Christmas by the 25th of December you are doing Advent wrong.”
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Lent is a journey we share
A war wages daily, on one side of the battle is the materialistic world that lures, romances and entices our baser, self-focused instincts for pleasure, comfort, luxury and wealth. On the other side is...
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Jesus’ sufferings point to the reality of his Kingship over all
Jesus just had a Passover supper like never before. Sure they did all the prescribed rituals, with a couple twists: he holds the unleavened bread that his ancestors held in Egypt and says, “This is my...
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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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