A reflection on the Mass Readings for May 15, 2022, the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Audio of Homily will be posted here. Sometimes scripture overwhelms me. It overwhelms me, not because of its demands but because the demands seem overwhelming...
A reflection on the Readings of January 30, 2022 – the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time It is not uncommon for people to ask me, “How did you decide to become a priest?” Often my answer to this question is...
In my thirty years on this earth, I have strived to live according to the commandments handed down by God fully manifest in the incarnate and risen Jesus Christ. It is never easy, regardless of which commandment. While all are...
It is when we are most beset that God makes Himself closest to us for the simple reason that we are then most like Him. The Cross shows Him at His most beset, and also yet at His most triumphing....
Imagine a line segment. On the farthest point left are the words, “Welcome and accompany homosexual persons.” On the farthest point right are the words, “God cannot bless sin.” The CDF’s recent responsum on the question of the blessing of...
Richard Dawkins wrote in The God Delusion: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic,...
The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith’s response to the question of whether the Church has the power to bless same-sex unions, and the reaction that ensued upon its publication, is a moment of reckoning for Catholics. Although the...
In his inaugural address today, President Joe Biden surprised me by quoting St. Augustine. (I expected him to quote Scripture, which he also did.) Notably, he called him “a saint in my Church,” referring to the Catholic Church. That reference...
The lack of the unity in the Church in recent years has given rise to more than just a penchant for irrational scientific beliefs and moral dogmatism. It has also allowed the sin of vainglory to flourish and find new...
The Christian story began amidst great turmoil: The passion, suffering, and crucifixion of Jesus; the continuing doubts, even after the Resurrection; the long and brutal persecution; and the dispersal of believers across the Roman Empire. This was the context of...
A reflection on the Mass readings for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. At my parish, I am currently leading an eight-week series on St. John of the Cross. John’s poems are all brilliant, but the ones that are the...
On Sunday, Pope Francis promulgated his third encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship. His timely assessment of the state of our world touches on issues including war, extreme inequality and economic disparity, environmental degradation, and the fractured global...
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