In the secular world, people are characterized as outliers in many ways. Not too long ago, a well-funded and orchestrated protest against the one-percenters of the ultra-high wealthy took place as Occupy Wallstreet. In the world of science and education, the outliers are those with the ultra-high IQ. In this Gospel which we recently heard in mass, Jesus is calling us to belong to a different group of outliers: those who truly love Him.
Like all faith traditions, the Catholic Church has been losing its children to the secular world for the past 60 years. How would the world be different today if children, and parents, learned simple ways to pray?
Recently our mass readings included the passage of Ezra praying for God’s pardon on behalf of his people. It made me think how often I’ve prayed in remorse for my own offenses against God, and those of others, but not ours. It might seem a trivial distinction but those trivial details are usually the most important…
A tattered piece of paper is discovered in a dusty old attic. From this humble beginning, A Meditation Before the Blessed Sacrament grew in use around the world. With permission, it is reproduced here.
Throughout our life’s journey, we collect thorns. Yet like St. Paul, we are plagued by certain thorns that our Savior does not take away: why would God leave us with a thorn for all of our lives?
To the blind without faith, it may seem like society and the world have gone to ‘hell in a handbasket’. But all power and strength belong to God alone. By becoming people of prayer, our lives and the world around us will be penetrated by the Holy Spirit…
God doesn’t fix our messes, but He does fix our broken heart. Can I accept that?
A podcast challenged me to rethink whether I am living as an answer to Jesus’ prayer for me in John 17…
Jesus’ closest friends were The Twelve. Yet one betrayed Him, ten ran away when trouble came knocking on their proverbial door, and the only one who stayed with Him in His passion was His younger cousin John…
How often we commit to take on silent prayer only to then struggle with the ‘how to’ aspect of prayer—what should I do in prayer? Fr. John Roothaan, reformer and Superior General of the Jesuits in the early 1800’s, gives us a simple step-by-step approach to meditating on scripture.