A number of people approached/called/emailed me over these past weeks asking something along the lines of, “Am I doing something wrong?  I can’t get on your website or listen to your homilies.”  My answer: “No, you aren’t doing anything wrong.  I can’t get onto my website either!”  The site was down for a number of weeks, but I’m happy to announce that it is back up and running!  I have posted below below all of the homilies you may have missed (I was sick one weekend in there, forgive me).  I’m glad to be a part of your life again!

I will not be preaching at the parish this weekend, and next weekend I get to be at a camp serving high schoolers from around our diocese.  The theme of the weekend will be: “Restless: Made for Union with God”.  Please keep me and these high schoolers in your prayers in a particular way next week and weekend.  God bless and have a great couple weeks!

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Michelangelo, one of the greatest artists of all time, loved sculpting most of all.  He could look at a block of marble, see the potential, a vision for what that block of marble was hiding, and then carve away everything that was not that potential.  Each one of us is standing in front of a block of marble called, “The rest of your life.”  Do you have a vision for what you want that block of marble to look like at the end of your life?  God has a vision for each one of us, He sees so much potential, He tells us in the Gospel today that within each of us is a heart that can love God with everything we’ve got and love our neighbor as ourself.  What do you want to look like at the end of your life: a roughly carved block of untapped potential tromping around heaven, or a true masterpiece of God’s creation?  It’s already inside of you!  So what are you carving?

Soon I will be going on a pilgrimage to hike a 250 mile portion of the Camino de Santiago in Spain, which ends at the remains of St. James the Apostle. Because of that, I will not have homilies to post for a while.

Also, effective mid-July, I have been reassigned as the associate pastor of the parishes in Medford and Whittlesey, Wisconsin.  To everyone in the Rice Lake area: thank you so much for receiving me so warmly and welcoming me into your lives over these last 3 years; it has been a pleasure and a privilege to be your priest and I will miss you all greatly! Please pray for me during this time of transition, and I will be praying for you.

After pilgrimage and once I’m settled into the new parishes, I will continue recording and posting my homilies: so we can stay connected even after I’ve moved!  God bless and have a wonderful start to the summer.

This weekend we have a missionary priest visiting who will be giving the homilies, so no homily for me : (

Have a blessed week!

This weekend our Deacon is preaching, so I will not have a homily of my own to record.  If you miss my voice enough, go into the archives and listen to one of my previous homilies!  Have a Blessed Easter season and you’ll hear from me next week, which is our First Holy Communion weekend.

This weekend I will be travelling to Green Bay to receive my 4th Degree Exemplification in the Knights of Columbus.  Please say a prayer in thanksgiving for all Knights and the great work that they do on behalf of our God and our Church.

I will not be preaching these next 2 weekends, so I will not have a homily to put up : (   Hopefully you can survive for a couple weeks without me. (If you miss my voice too much, feel free to listen to a few older podcasts!)  God bless.

I am sorry to say that uncontrollable nosebleeds yesterday put me on house arrest (by doctor’s orders) before I could celebrate Mass, and house arrest continues until Monday when I can talk to my regular ENT.  As a result, I do not have a homily to publish for this weekend.  The theme of Advent is “waiting”, so it looks like we’re all waiting together ; )

I will be gone the next 2 weekends recovering from an upcoming surgery on my nose: septoplasty.  The doctor said I must have gotten a pretty hard knock sometime in my life to cause a deviated septum.  I said I couldn’t remember anything in particular, but asked if I could just blame it on my older brother…he said that would be fine.  Doctor’s orders – it’s all Patrick’s fault!  If you miss me too much, I uploaded an hour long talk last week; just play that on repeat until I’m back in good health.  I will be praying for you all during my recovery, please keep me in your prayers.