5th Sunday of Lent

This weekend I helped with a High School Discipleship Retreat – we have some incredible young men and women in northern Wisconsin who love Jesus Christ and want to know our Lord more and more!  It’s truly inspiring to be a part of these retreats!  Both our first reading and Gospel speak of situations where some people are trapping and others are being trapped: in both readings God sets His people free.  God has the power to free us from whatever situations are weighing us down, even if they seem impossible to get out of or be gotten rid of.  Our God is a God Who saves and sets free!  How has God set you free in life?  How does God want to free you more right now?

4th Sunday of Lent

“Pain’s there for a reason.  It lets your body know something’s wrong and it needs to be fixed.”  These words are true of our body, but they are also true of our emotions, heart, soul, and spirituality.  Pain is there for a reason – it lets us know that something is wrong and needs to be fixed – as both of the brothers in our Gospel this weekend experience, and as we have and continue to experience in our own lives.  Pain is often coupled with an invitation from God to come home, to come to the fullness and wholeness that our Father wants to give us!

Thank you for your prayers last weekend as I brought not 10 but 11 young men on a college seminary visit to Winona.  It was a great opportunity for these young men to see the life of a seminarian and be inspired by how these seminarians are listening for God’s call in very intentional ways.  We were able to join in prayer, sports, classes and fun.  Our high school men walked away with a deeper desire to follow Jesus Christ in whatever path HE might lead them.  Thanks again for your prayers and support, and please continue to pray that all of our youth might hunger to know Jesus Christ more deeply in their lives each day.  And my homily for this weekend:

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

“But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  Strong words from Jesus in our Gospel today – very strong words.  Repentance is turning toward God and admitting our sins…and it’s not easy for us as humans.  We’re sinners.  That’s not meant to be depressing, but freeing.  We are sinners, we’ve messed up, and Jesus came to free us from our sins, to take that weight off of our shoulders so that we can get on living.  Jesus tells us today that this path to freedom, however, starts with repentance – turning toward God, admitting our mistakes, and allowing His forgiveness to enter our lives and lift us up.

This weekend I will be taking 10 high school men from our diocese on a seminary visit to Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, Minnesota.  Please keep us in your prayers, both for safe travels and that these young men might be open to discovering God’s will for their lives. 

Because of this seminary visit, I will not be preaching this weekend.  Lucky for you, however, I have a Throwback Homily on our readings this weekend for the 2nd Sunday of Lent!

1st Sunday of Lent

Lent is a great opportunity for us – an excuse to slow down a bit, a time to shake us out of our daily routine (through fasting and no-meat Fridays, with our personal resolutions: giving something up or adding healthy spiritual practices). Lent provides us more chances to LOOK UP to our God and ask for His help in our lives.  The Israelites were led by Moses out of Egypt, they were tempted in the desert and failed three times by not turning to God and trying to fix the issue themselves.  In our Gospel today, Jesus is led into the desert for forty days and forty nights, tempted by the devil, and Jesus wins three times!  How?  He LOOKS UP to the Father for help and doesn’t try to do it alone.  This Lent you will be led into the desert (some things in your life will be hard and difficult), and you will be tempted (like the Israelites, like Jesus).  Will you try to do it alone, or will you LOOK UP?