Chains That Weigh Us Down

What chains weigh us down? What sins have we grown comfortable with in our lives? Wanting more than our fair share of things? Making ourselves out to be better than other people? Battling against the sin of pride? Falling into the sin of gluttony with food or drink? Struggling with lust or viewing pornography? Embracing…

Cleansing Our Inner Temples

Y’all, this year seems to be flying by so quickly. I am finding it really hard to believe that we are already at the Third Sunday of Lent. It feels like Christmas was 2 weeks ago…and here we are less than a month away from Easter! But that should give us a deeper sense of…

Woe To Me If I Do Not Preach

In a meeting with the Bishops of the United States in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI said: “What is needed above all, at this time in the history of the church in America, is a renewal of that apostolic zeal which inspires her shepherds actively to seek out the lost, to bind up those who have…

Need for Deeper Spiritual Vision

Over the last couple of weeks now, if you have been to daily Mass, there have been a couple of occasions in our Gospels where we have seen these encounters happen with Jesus and the unclean spirits. It always surprises me how in these interactions, in these Gospel stories, it is often the unclean spirits…

Symbols of Advent

Today marks a very special day in the life of the Church. It’s a day when we not only begin a new liturgical year, but it is also a day when we begin an extraordinary time of grace. Today, we begin the Season of Advent, a season when we focus on waiting and hopeful expectation…

Being Christ for the Least Ones

Mother Teresa once said: “Many today are starving for ordinary bread. But there is another kind of hunger – the hunger to be wanted, to be loved, to be recognized. Nakedness, too, is not just the want of clothes, but also about loss of dignity, purity, self-respect. And homelessness is not just want of a…

Who Do You Say That I Am?

As human beings, sometimes we become fascinated on what everyone else thinks – whether that’s opinions on political candidates, the direction of our government, the important social issues of our day, the responses to various situations and circumstances, the decisions of Church leaders. We all just want to know what people think. So often, we…

Wheat and Weeds

This might come as a surprise to many of you – to others maybe not so much – but I am not the most patient person. In fact, I’m not really that patient at all. You can ask my brother priests about that and they will absolutely agree with that statement, especially Fr. Martin. I…

Soil of our Hearts

On the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in December 1990, Pope St. John Paul II released his encyclical letter Redemptoris Missio. In it, he wrote about the mission of the Church, the mission of all of us as the people of God, to carry out and bring to completion the mission of…