When I was growing up our family observed a time-honored ritual every year which was affectionately known as “spring cleaning.” Unlike the normal cleaning from week to week, which amounted to dusting and vacuuming and generally straightening up, spring cleaning was an all-out assault on a year’s worth of filth and clutter. It was commonly…
Have you ever been to a library? There’s a special rule for how we use our voices there, right? (Do you remember the rule? How do we speak in a library?) That’s right – we use very quiet voices in the library because we don’t want to disturb anyone who might be reading. Now things…
Thank you for joining us today as we celebrate Ash Wednesday, the very beginning of the liturgical season of Lent. In preparation for today’s homily, I took some time to reflect on growing up in my family and how we celebrated Lent. Interestingly enough, we didn’t eat meat on any Friday throughout the year. Not…
One night in the hospital, while recovering from my surgery, I found myself unable to remember the prayers I had known since childhood. I would start one prayer, get somewhere in the middle of the prayer, and my mind would then jump to a different section of the prayer, or to a completely different prayer,…
Maybe it’s crossed your mind that it’s a race to either the vaccine or the virus and only time will tell which one will get to us first. Of course, like you, I pray – on my hands and knees – that I get to the vaccine before the virus gets to me. We find…
After being ordained as a priest for eight years, I was assigned as the Executive Director of Catholic Charities for the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Virginia. I was in my thirties at the time and going into the new position I felt alarmingly unprepared. From the moment I received the assignment I wondered about the sanity…
For email posts, click here to watch. Object suggested: Objects of beauty from the natural world. An oil lamp, if available. The picture I selected of the beautiful colored leaves. I think some of the most beautiful things occur in nature. What beautiful sights have you seen in the world around you? Here are a…
For email posts, click here to watch online. It’s around this time every year when the church calendar begins to include end-times themes into the Sunday readings. And depending on how you count them, the Gospel writers document around 40 parables that Jesus told. In some – like the parable of the mustard seed –…
For email posts, click here to watch online. Many people like to write in diaries or journals. Some do it to keep track of what they do everyday. They may also record the daily temperature and weather conditions. Some people take a journal with them when they travel and jot down where they went and…
For email posts, click here to watch online. We think of the last days of Jesus’ final week as being full of challenges coming at Him from every side. (Understatement of the century, right?!) During His final week Jesus dealt with betrayal, arrest, torture, and crucifixion. Jesus’ final week was full of challenges coming at Him…
