2nd Sunday of Lent
The Birkie is an incredible yearly event! So many people, come from all over the country (and the world) to make this experience possible — whether it’s the skiers, the many volunteers, the family members, the friends, the staff, all our business owners — everyone comes together, preps, and plays their part to make this week happen. Could the Birkie be a lens, a window, an analogy, into how God wants us to live the entirety of our lives?!
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.”
Merry Christmas!
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled.”
4th Sunday of Advent
Mary is hailed today as full of grace, full of God’s blessings. Our lives, too, are filled with God’s blessings…but it’s so easy to forget and miss those blessings (and our sins lead us to forget God’s blessings as well). As we enter into this Christmas season, let us, like Mary, recognize our blessings and remind ourselves and others of the good things God has done!
2nd Sunday of Advent
Christ comes to bring a peace that every heart and soul longs for but which nothing in the world is able to provide.What we need is more of God, more holiness, more of God’s light shining in and through us. And as we experience God’s light shining out through us, both we and others experience the peace that this world cannot give!
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!
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
No matter how many talents we believe the Master has given us, no matter if we have used them wisely up until this point or not, we all still have at least one talent (and an important one) – faith! And our Master expects us to use whatever we have right now, engage with it, “trade” with it, and intentionally multiply that talent. Our Master hasn’t yet come back to settle accounts with us, so we still have time to engage others and the world with that talent and make a good return on what He has given to 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!
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
I’ve been hearing a lot of discouragement at the state of our world, our country: the divisions, the politics, the games, the manipulation from all sides. I hear people sad that many of their own kids have fallen away from the active practice of the Catholic faith, that their own grandkids or great-grandkids aren’t baptized. I hear people lamenting that our younger generations are spending so much time on their phones and on social media.
All legitimate feelings. But there is a very evil temptation/conclusion that can come about as a result of these feelings. It’s a temptation that must be rejected, with a positive call to action from God that must be accepted and lived out by His followers here on earth if we wish to see souls saved and lives changed for the glory of God!