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…
Author: Michael J. Sanem
Michael J. Sanem is the author of "Your Church Wants to Hear from You: What is the Synod on Synodality?" and the forthcoming "Becoming the Good News: A New Approach to Parish Evangelization," both published by Liturgical Press. He has also written for Give Us This Day, National Catholic Reporter, God In All Things, US Catholic Magazine, Millennial Journal, the Catholic Key Magazine and the Leaven Catholic Newspaper. A former Bernardin Scholar at Catholic Theological Union, he works in ministry in Kansas City, where he lives with his wife and three sons.
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…
A Listening Church and the New Evangelization
My article on being a Listening Church and the New Evangelization has been published by the National Catholic Reporter today. You can read it here: https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/new-evangelization-has-problems-synodal-approach-can-help Additionally, I’ve written a short book on the Synod on Synodality called “Your Church Needs to Hear from You: What is the Synod on Synodality?” that will be published…
Covid, Peace, and Panic
I finally caught the old Covid. Well, I guess technically it’s the new Covid, the Omicron kind that doesn’t go into the lungs, thankfully. But it wasn’t fun in the head and sinuses either. At first I had to isolate for a few days from my family and from the outside world. That was, well,…
In the Sight of Such Love
“You are my beloved . . . with you I am well pleased.” I find, even among people of faith, a certain reticence to being told they are God’s beloved. We often sidestep the issue: “Well, God only loves Jesus like that, not me.” Even now, as you’re reading this, you might be squirming a…
Into the Littleness
“Dear sister or brother, if, as in Bethlehem, the darkness of night overwhelms you, if you feel surrounded by cold indifference, if the hurt you carry inside cries out, “You are of little account; you are worthless; you will never be loved the way you want”, tonight, if this is what you are feeling, God…
Begin Again
“Let us begin again, sisters and brothers, for up until now we have done little or nothing,” St. Francis of Assisi was fond of saying often. He even supposedly said it on his deathbed, as his “Sister Death” drew near. As Christmas draws near, and the New Year soon after, it might be helpful to…
Everything Afire
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,And every common bush afire with God,But only he who sees takes off his shoes;The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.” ― Elizabeth Barrett Browning Don’t pluck too many blackberries this Advent, or this one precious life. At some point, awaken to the fiery presence of God in everything around you, hidden…
Ocean of Love
“One day while I was praying, I lost all sense of God’s presence,” he said, and I could hear the pain in his voice. “It was just me, alone, talking to an empty room. Just talking to myself.” We were at coffee, talking about faith, and about how sometimes spiritual growth can feel more like…
Our Beloved Dead
For All Souls’ Day, 2021 The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction.But they are in peace.For if before men,…
A Quiet Luminosity
When I was young I was attracted to power, and to powerful people: pro football stars, wealthy superheroes, politicians, business owners, and world leaders. Real or fictional, I loved the idea of people who could make things happen, who could get what they wanted out of life and affect change, people who could “leave their…
Teresa of Jesus
“Let nothing disturb you,Let nothing frighten you,All things are passing away:God never changes.Patience obtains all thingsWhoever has God lacks nothing;God alone suffices.” For many, the word MYSTIC can conjure up images of stained-glass saints and ragged ascetics, or some VIP class of Christian who claims to have exclusive spiritual experiences of God, Christ, or Mary….
A Listening Church
“The Synod offers us the opportunity to become a listening Church, to break out of our routine and pause from our pastoral concerns in order to stop and listen. The Synod offers us the opportunity to become a Church of closeness, that does not stand aloof from life, but immerses herself in today’s problems and…
An Evening Prayer
May He support us all the day long,till the shades lengthen and the evening comes,and the busy world is hushed,and the fever of life is over,and our work is done.Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging,and a holy restand peace at the last.Amen. —John Henry Newman (1801–1890) “Hail Mary, the Jesus…
Growing Pains
From the Fall 2021 Catholic Key Magazine: https://catholickey.org/2021/09/09/growing-pains/ A season of transition has descended on our family. My oldest boy is starting kindergarten, I’m changing jobs, and the whole family is moving. It’ll mean some big changes for all of us, and the end of a really wonderful chapter in our life together. Often, when…
The Soul Knows
I will be celebrating my birthday this week and well, dear friends, it’s been a year. A new baby, a new job, a new house, an old pandemic, and on and on and on. On the bright side, I am now well into my late 30s, and I have finally discovered that life does not…
Sunset at the Cathedral
My day begins with a quick dip into the office, where I talk to my hermanitas (I am hermanito) about everything going on in our lives. In just a few short years (and a once in a lifetime global pandemic), we have become as much a family as a workplace, which is to say that…
incarnation is everywhere 