There we stood, the parish priest, the janitor, and me. The sink in the newly-renovated parish kitchen was emitting a gentle jet of water, straight up and out of the base of the faucet, which gracefully landed—thankfully—in the sink. The three of us stood in silence for a while, gaping, amazed that a brand-new sink…
One day, when my brother and I were kids, we were throwing a football back and forth inside, in our shared bedroom. I threw it too hard and my brother panicked and ducked, and the ball went right through our window. We stopped dead in our tracks and listened to see if our parents might…
I was listening to the radio the other day, and caught an interview with two NASA scientists. It turns out, the new Mars rover Perseverance has landed on the Red Planet. The host interviewing the scientists promised not to go overboard with her own speculations, but asked the question that we all wonder about: what would it…
The first reading we heard this morning was from Deuteronomy. It’s one of my favorite books from the original testament, but it can be a little hard to understand. Moses is talking to the people who followed him out of Egypt, escaping slavery and the power of Pharaoh. They’ve been wandering for a while, and…
He told me, “I have built a life that is perfectly balanced. I’m like a trained seal. I’m standing on a rubber ball, with a tray on my flipper, stacked with porcelain plates and cups. If I make a move in any direction, it’ll all come tumbling down.” * * * My family moved to…
In our first reading today, Paul says something really bold. He’s talking about the good news of Jesus, and he says “according to my gospel.” My gospel. I couldn’t believe it, because usually we say it’s Jesus’ gospel, or God’s gospel, but Paul said “my gospel.” I found that surprising. “Gospel” is an old word that means “good…
My family has been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster the past couple of weeks. There was a pregnancy that became compromised, and it was a scary thing as the mother was put on bedrest in the hospital. There was eventually an emergency C-section, and all the things that could have gone wrong somehow didn’t. When…
For email posts, click here to watch online. The Gospel we heard today is called the Sermon on the Mount, and it’s one our most beautiful stories. Close your eyes and picture it: we have Jesus on the top of the hill, and all the people sitting on the grass below him, and he’s teaching…
It was about nine o’clock in the evening when my beeper sounded. I was on call at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where I’m currently completing my Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), and this was the first time in two months that I’d received a message on the “pastoral care” pager, rather than the frequently-used “trauma” pager. Dialing…
I have a pretty shameful memory from when I was back in the 4th Grade. We were taking a spelling test, and I think this was the first year we had begun to check each other’s work. After taking the test, I passed mine to the student in the desk behind me, and got the test…
