Author: Fr. David Neuschwander

Ask 6

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Feasts, Ordinary Time

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Last summer I challenged everyone to Meet 6, to meet six people from church.  This summer I’m asking you to take the next step.  Christian community isn’t simply meeting or knowing people or getting together; that’s a first step…but Christian community involves Jesus Christ!  Christian community is about Christ-informed relationships, faith-filled friendships and interactions.  The next step in the process, whether it’s someone you know well or someone you don’t know at all, is to ask a very simple, yet a very powerful, question once you’ve met them: “Is there something I can pray for you for?” “How can I pray for you?”

This summer, Ask 6!  Step out of your comfort zone to ask six people, “Is there something I can pray for you for?” Then bring that intention to prayer before God on that person’s behalf.  We all know our world needs the light of Christ, and you, O Christian, have the power to bring that light into our world with an extremely simple and inviting question: “Is there something I can pray for you for?” “How can I pray for you?”  Then pray!

Great Things!

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Easter Season

Third Sunday of Easter

God wants to do great things in our lives and in our parishes!  But we’re also short on priests (and, in our diocese, short on American priests) which means that more and more is expected of our current priests.  So how will God do great things in us and through us and around us if the priest doesn’t have time to do it?  It has to happen through you, O Christian!  God wants to and will do great things in our world when individuals, when the lay faithful, step up and step into their baptismal calling to use the gifts and talents they’ve been given to build up God’s kingdom here and now!  God wants to do great things in our lives and in our parishes…through YOU!

Prayer: Dealing with Distractions

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Lent

4th Sunday of Lent

Do you ever get distracted in prayer?  It’s normal, it’s human; sometimes focus is within our control, sometimes it is not.  There are, however, better and worse ways to respond to distraction, better and worse ways to enter back into prayer and time with our God.  Want to know what some are?  Then listen to this weekend’s homily!

Prayer: One% Challenge

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Lent, Ordinary Time

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Lent I don’t want you to give up chocolate, I don’t want you to give up sweets (we’ll focus on the topic of fasting next year).  This Lent I want all of us, as the parish family of St. Joseph and St. Ann, to focus on prayer!  I’d like us all to focus on growing in our relationship with Jesus Christ through daily prayer.  One percent of our day is 14 minutes and 24 seconds – this Lent the challenge is to spend one more percent of your day, each day, in prayer.  If you aren’t praying every day yet, this is the time to start!  If you are praying regularly, then it’s time to add an extra 14 minutes and 24 seconds of intentional prayer with the Lord.  Try any and all prayer resources available and find the ones that help you to row the most in your relationship with the Lord!

Christians Pray Every Day

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Ordinary Time

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

As Christians we are proclaiming ourselves to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ, followers of Christ.  Our Christian life is built on this relationship with the Lord out of which everything else flows.  Daily talking with God is not an achievement in the Christian life, it’s the foundation and the minimum, the beginning of the Christian life!  Christians pray every day.

This Lent, our focus as parishioners of the cluster of St. Joseph and St. Ann parishes will be on prayer – on personally taking one step deeper in our relationship with Jesus Christ, no matter where we are currently at in our life and habits of prayer, taking one step deeper, together.

A New Old Way

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Ordinary Time

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

We will be starting a journey as the parishes of St. Joseph and St. Ann beginning this Lent, starting a journey in the direction God is truly calling us as His disciples!  Some things, like the Israelites in our first reading, we will discover to be different than we were originally told or taught, even by those in the Church.  We are going to be hitting the “reset” button on what Jesus truly calls us to as Christians in this beautiful Catholic faith, which will involve detoxing from misunderstanding and false notions.  Step One (and our focus during Lent this year) will be focusing on growing in prayer and our relationship with God.  Step Two, which grows out of our relationship with God in prayer, is uncovering and living out our specific roles in the Body of Christ, which Paul describes in our second reading this weekend.  I’m excited to lead us on down this path which may seem new to us, but is in fact old, very old – it’s the way Jesus Christ Himself called us to live!

Holy Family

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Feasts

Feast of the Holy Family

Jesus not only came as a baby at Christmas, He also entered into a human family – with all the joys and frustrations that go with it.  We are challenged in all relationships, but especially in the family, to put the wants and needs of others before our own, to stretch our hearts, to learn how to love more, to sacrifice for each other.  Our readings today all challenge us to put others first, “Children, obey your parents in everything…Wives, be subordinate to your husbands…Husbands, love your wives.”  Jesus loved us, and so He subordinated Himself to our needs, even to the point of death.  We can practice this kind of love every day, especially in the family!

Awake and Conscious

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Advent

3rd Sunday of Advent

The story of Advent is that the Eternal Son of the Father, God Himself, became human to save us from our sin and show that He IS with us.  God is always with me – every moment of the day.  I’ll be honest, though: that’s really hard to see sometimes.  But it’s the reality!  When I go through my day not consciously experiencing the presence of God with me, that’s living in a fantasy, it’s living in a lie, it’s living with my eyes closed to reality.  God is with me!  The challenge this week: I dare you to try to live one hour of your normal, daily life conscious that Jesus IS with you!