During Tuesday’s Vespers Service for the new Archbishop of Denver, a Scripture passage was proclaimed that seemed to speak very clearly to the recent workings of my own interior life. Here is the text: Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one Read more…
Today’s Solemnity of Assumption reminds us we are on a pilgrimage of faith that leads to something beyond this earth; beyond this life. The opening prayer for today’s Mass concludes “May we see heaven as our final goal…” We need this reminder. Mary’s Assumption into heaven reinforces all of what Read more…
Today the Church celebrates another feast of our Blessed Mother under the title of the Immaculate Heart. This morning as I was walking and praying the rosary, I had a few thoughts about how much we continue to need Mary. In the first Joyful Mystery, the Annunciation, we see how God Read more…
Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus; July 1, 2011: Homily For several months, I have looked forward to this celebration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I’m not sure how to put the desire of my heart into words, and part of that I hope is because Read more…
Today we celebrate the conversion of St. Paul. His “immediate conversion” story is perhaps one of the best known accounts in all of Christian history. For that reason, I am “struck” with the thought that no matter how powerfully God intervened in Saul’s life, there was still for him as Read more…
Merry Christmas! I wish to begin my reflection this evening / morning with a story, which seems to capture the event of the Incarnation: Imagine a child’s sandbox. A young Dad is driving home from work. In the backyard, in the sandbox, are his little daughter, and her younger brother, Read more…
The summer before I entered the seminary, 1984, I built a grotto in the backyard. I got the idea from my uncle, Fr. Bernie Voges, who built a shrine for the Blessed Mother in my Grandmother’s backyard. I planted two small evergreens next to the grotto. Today, the trees are Read more…
Thursday’s Gospel from Matthew clarifies again for us the common and continual focus of the Christian journey: Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. These words of Jesus call us Read more…
The saints we honor today desired to walk in the Light of the presence of Christ. They desired to live the will of God. If not desiring the cross, they desired to carry it gracefully. All we need do to imitate their lives and holiness, it to desire to live Read more…
Another lesson from nature comes from the effort to remove invasive species from our woods. There is one tree, oddly enough named, Tree of Heaven, that is an invasive species, and must be controlled if not eradicated. Invasive species in a hardwood forest are synonymous with sin in the spiritual Read more…