21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

The people in our first reading today, the Israelites, are at a decision point — they need to decide whom they will follow.  This ancient Biblical situation is wildly applicable for us today.  November 5th is the upcoming presidential election.  Everyone is getting so worked up over politics, and we are all guilty of becoming more and more demonizing to anybody who disagrees with what we think.  I’d invite you to ask yourself: “Whose side am I on?  Whom do I support?”  I think you’ll be surprised by what ought to be the real answer to that question, O Christian!

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This weekend is the kickoff for our annual diocesan Catholic Services Appeal (CSA).  The CSA provides incredible opportunities to spread the faith of Jesus Christ in northwestern Wisconsin – for our seminarians, for our youth, for our schools, for our parishes – opportunities that I witness and see the fruits of firsthand!  I’m challenging you this year to stretch yourself in prayerful generosity to all of your favorite organizations and non-profits.   I challenge you particularly this week to think what you might be able to sacrifice monetarily to support the CSA for your parish this coming year.  Jesus Christ is our model of prayer and generosity; let’s act more like Christ in this life, so as to become more of who we are called to be in the next!

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

God works so powerfully in and around us at different times in our lives…but like the Israelites in our first reading, it’s so easy to forget the good things God has done in our lives.  When we remember what God has done for us and consciously give Him thanks for those blessings, we begin to enter more fully into the celebration of the Eucharist, where we “give thanks” to God for what He has done for us, especially in giving us the greatest gift of all: the gift of His own Body and Blood, “the food that endures to eternal life!”

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We mistakenly think that comfort will lead to happiness…but the human experience proves that those who do NOT regularly push themselves outside their comfort zones experience a slow but sure atrophy of their spiritual, emotional, physical, and relational health, and thus a slow but sure atrophy of happiness and fulfillment.  Those who consistently push themselves outside their comfort zones are healthier, happier, more fulfilled people: spiritually, emotionally, physically, relationally, etc.  (Book: The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter)

In today’s readings we see Amos and the Twelve pushed way outside their comfort zones to proclaim God’s message – they weren’t “religious professionals”, they were never schooled in this, most of them had blue collar jobs…and yet God chose and sent these individuals to witness to Him.  God has chosen and sent you, too, O Christian, as Paul tells us in our second reading.  You have been chosen, you have been sent, by the creator of the universe!  Will you begin to step outside your comfort zones, push your perceived boundaries, and start experiencing, to a degree you didn’t even know was possible, the life God actually has in store for you?!

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

A question to ask ourselves today: “Am I living for myself, or am I living for God?”  And the answer for most of us is probably, “A little bit of both…depending on when you catch me during the day.”  In our Bishop’s Pastoral Letter on Evangelization he gives the image of three circles of what our life can look like and explains them: first, second or third circle.  I want third circle Catholicism, and I hope you do, too!  (Listen to find out what that means!)

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I head a lot of complaining and blaming in this day and age.  Jesus had a lot that he could have complained about in his time…a lot…but we don’t hear Him complain once in the Gospels about any of the things that we often complain about.  Why?  Because His mission wasn’t first and foremost to fix the world.  Rather, Jesus came to save individual people from their sins; Jesus’ mission was to save souls, to proclaim that God’s day was a t hand…and that’s the mission He gave us!  So stop complainin’ and start proclaimin’!

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In our Gospel today we see Jesus healing those who are sick or possessed by demons, restoring some people physically and some people spiritually.  Jesus’ wholeness heals others.  While His apostles aren’t yet healing others at this point in their lives, we know that one day they will.  While the saints aren’t yet healing others when this Gospel passage happened, we know that one day they will.  And all of it comes from closeness with the Father, often exemplified through prayer-Jesus in our Gospel goes off early in the morning to pray to His Father.  Their wholeness/holiness came from deep union with God, often in prayer, and it spilled over into those around them, bringing restoration and healing…and God will do the same through us when we spend time growing in deep union with the Father, too!

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

The spiritual life, I believe, is actually very simple; it’s not easy, but it’s simple.  It’s following the impulses that come from deep within, the calls that arise from the depths of our soul and heart, from the place within us where God already dwells.  God is so much closer to us than we realize.  God molded our inmost being, He created us, He placed a spark of eternity in each of us, He gave each of us the breath of His Spirit to give us life; God already dwells deep, deep within each of us.  “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

34th Sunday in Ordinary Time

At the end of this liturgical year our readings focus on the end of time, the final judgment, and the coming of God’s kingdom in its fullness, the completion of God’s great plan for all of creation. Jesus speaks of all people being assembled before the Son of Man, and that “he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” And those on his left “will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”  Is God fair?  Is this treatment fair?  Listen and find out why this is actually incredibly GOOD news for us!

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

This weekend I am thankful to preach back at my home parish of St. Patrick in Hudson.  Thank you to all of you who inspired me in the faith and grew me into who I am today.  I am a priest because of you.  As Paul said in our second reading, “We were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well.”  Thank you for sharing with me and others not only the Gospel of God but your very selves as well…and keep doing that!