It’s a strange thing to write a book. You spend so many waking hours devoted to an idea and vision only you can see, and even then, you can only see it obscurely. Some days, writing comes easy, others it is a total struggle. And so you labor on and on until finally a decent…
Wounds That Remain
Triduum Reflection for Give Us This Day, March 2024 There is a wound at the heart of these high holy days, a scarlet thread binding both the divine and the human in an experience of deep love and great suffering. On Holy Thursday, we celebrate in a particular way the outflowing love of God present…
We three kings
Happy Feast of the Epiphany! I just love this fitting feastly bookend for the Christmas season, when the “small” discovery of God incarnate at Christmas enters into our messy human history. Additionally, “We Three Kings” has always been one of my favorite Christmas carols to sing, and I really belt it out when given the…
Winter reading (and writing)
It’s been an unseasonably mild winter here in the Midwest, which most likely means some sort of polar vortex will descend upon us in the new year, bringing arctic temperatures and frozen pipes to this old house. Nevertheless, winter is a wonderful time to be outside, particularly in the evening, which comes swift and inky…
A Primal, Wild Kind of Love
Luscious images of overflowing abundance greet us in the Scriptures on this feast of the Holy Family. In Sirach and the psalm: riches and long life, fruitful vines and olive plants, families gathered around the table. And from Colossians, a good roadmap for a happy domestic life together: “Put on . . . heartfelt compassion,…
Letter of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to the People of God
At the conclusion of the recent Synod on Synodality, the synod participants have published a remarkable letter to the People of God. As I read it, I am overcome with the sense that the Holy Spirit is living and active among us: “The Church absolutely needs to listen to everyone, starting with the poorest.” How…
Transitus
This evening, October 3rd, is traditionally celebrated as the Solemnity of the Transitus of St. Francis of Assisi. “Transitus” means passage, or transition, and tonight, we celebrate the Francis’s transition from this life to the life eternal. If there ever was a patron saint for this site, it would be St. Francis, who has taught…
Synodality and Evangelization
Many thanks to Kimberley Heatherington, OSV News Correspondent, for her article on Synodality and Evangelization, featuring an interview with yours truly! The Synod on Synodality begins this week in Rome, and there are already good fruits from the initial meetings. May it be a time of encounter, of deep listening to one another and the…
Seasons of Evangelization
When I lived in Chicago, winter began to cut through your coat sometime in October, as the once-pleasant wind off the lake turned bitter and the days grew dark. We’d hunker down and focus on survival for the next few months . . . until some glorious day in April, when we’d crawl out of…
A Hidden Tenderness
Perhaps, in the face of an illness or an accident or a particularly difficult situation, we may have a sense of bitter futility, frustration, and even resignation. Feeling totally helpless, we throw up our hands and say, “Why, God, is this happening to me?” Today’s Scriptures are filled with images of such human powerlessness. God’s…
The Sacrament of Surrender
My family was recently waylaid by one of those post-covid chimera viruses that brought fevers, stomach issues, sore throats, as well as plenty of fatigue and general malaise to the whole crew for over a week. Thankfully, we’ve all finally started recovering from the unpleasant reminder of the dangers of the post-covid preschool and first…
Wounded for Christ
Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Easter: “When they heard this, they were cut to the heart.“ Life offers ample opportunities for heartbreak. Tragedy befalls families, communities, and countries. Natural disasters, and the effects of environmental degradation and climate change, often seem to strike the poorest of the poor. Mental health suffers and sometimes snaps….
And the violent take it by force
“The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force.” Matthew 11:12 At the beginning of the documentary The Letter, Pope Francis, speaking about the daily reports of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean, points to the greater issue, that is, the growing indifference to people dying in such horrible circumstances: “We…
Becoming the Good News
Dear friends and readers, My new book, Becoming the Good News: A New Approach to Parish Evangelization has been published! It’s available for purchase on Liturgical Press’s website, Amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble. If you like my writing, I think you will enjoy this book. Although it’s written with a particular audience in mind, it…
Fast or Feast
Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation. Even so, chances are that at your parish and mine, Mass will be jam-packed. Maybe there’s something about “You are dust and to dust you shall return” that speaks to people in a way that a Mass in Ordinary Time does not. And yet last Ash…
Chronicle of a Christmas Foretold
In a split second our Sunday plans changed. We were bedecked in our Christmas best, my wife and I and all three eager boys, on our way to a Bambinelli Sunday Mass. There, the priest would bless all the Bambinellis, the little Baby Jesus figurines for the family nativity sets, and afterwards a busy and…
New Book: Becoming the Good News
Greetings friends! I’m excited to share that my new book Becoming the Good News: A New Approach to Parish Evangelization is available for pre-order and will be released this spring. Special thanks to all the friends, colleagues, and family who were the inspiration for writing, and to the many who read and offered feedback and…
The Marginal King
Reflection for Give Us This Day, on the readings for the Feast of Christ the King: Jesus might have been a more palatable earthly king if he bothered to act like one. Kings and queens, after all, need to make some compromises here and there. King David, for example, reconciles with the elders of Israel…
Onto Something
“To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.” – Walker Percy, “The Moviegoer” In 2016 I awoke from under heavy anesthesia, and the phrase “Incarnation is Everywhere” came to me. I had just donated bone marrow, via a surgical…
The Call You Don’t See Coming
From the September 2022 issue of Give Us This Day: Have you ever sensed a calling even before you were ready to hear it? Maybe a career you once loved suddenly becomes shallow and repetitive, or your heart is seized with a surprising desire for fulfillment beyond paying the bills. Perhaps the reality of our…
It is good to hope in silence
In today’s morning prayer from Give Us This Day, the scripture verse from Lamentations counseled: “It is good to hope in silence/ for the Lord’s deliverance.” It struck me, while praying with it, how often we hope quite loudly. And our hope might even sound a little, well, whiny. It might even become a litany…
Through All Generations
Reflection on the daily readings for Give Us This Day, June 21st, 2022, Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga: When I first started teaching high school theology, I was a mess. Arriving fresh from graduate school, on fire with a love for the Gospel and for social justice, I struggled to communicate what was in my…
Evil is not inevitable
It wasn’t a particularly inspiring line from yesterday’s Gospel that stuck with me during my prayer: “The ruler of this world has been condemned.” And yet there it was, nearly jumping of the page. I thought, perhaps, it connected with some of the research I was doing on the New Testament understanding of salvation. Certainly,…
Sundowning and Sacred Memory
Today would have been my grandpa William’s 105th birthday. He only died six years ago so he lived a good long life. But, a good long life, when it ends, leaves a large void, no matter how ready they were to depart, or how long they walked beside us. After my grandpa died, I took…
Washing His Feet
He limped in off the street, leaning on a wheelchair that had “2nd Floor Pain Clinic” written on the seat. On the back, it just said “PAIN” in large letters. We had just endured twelve days of subzero temperatures in Kansas City, with lows in the negative teens. At Morning Glory Ministries, a social outreach…
New Book!
Dear friends, Thank you to all who have read, shared, and supported my writing. My first short book has been published by Liturgical Press and will be coming out next week! You can find it here: https://litpress.org/Products/6816/Your-Church-Wants-to-Hear-from-You Please feel free to share with anyone who is interested in creating spaces for dialogue, listening, and accompanying…
When the Good News Seems Grim
If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23 This is a frightening prospect. To be entirely dispossessed of everything that is not Christ, leaning more and more on him, entering every more deeply into the suffering of others: the sick, the…
Is hope possible?
I went to bed with a heavy heart last night. War, violence, and terror, once again. I remember watching the towers fall on live TV, my senior year of high school. I remember my college experience shaded by the war on terror, the destruction of Iraq and the long quagmire in Afghanistan. When I graduated,…
A Jesus Prayer
Jesus My life, my love, and my hope I am beset by many anxieties as I walk the well trod path behind you. Jesus You asked me to follow youa long time agoand I havethrough times of bitter painand searing fearto delightful oases of rest,and peace,and joyful service. Jesus Help me not to lose hopeor…
incarnation is everywhere 