New Podcast – Apostles’ Field Guide
July 4, 2020I’m excited to share with you a new project that I’ve been working on, the Apostles’ Field Guide podcast. I love reading the Catechism and I study papal encyclicals for fun (which is a useful hobby when your day job is a parish catechist). I believe the Holy Spirit speaks to all the faithful through the pope and the bishops, and that the Spirit’s words can transform our hearts so that we can be agents of mercy in the world. However, these documents can be intimidating and difficult to understand. I wanted to create a resource that breaks down those…
Theosis, Pastoral Accompaniment, and the Law of Gradualism
Back in January the Lord put on my mind and heart an idea for a theological essay that he wanted me to write. I don’t say that lightly here. Never before has something burned within me until I wrote it…
Infinitely loved by God
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal law that prohibits employers from discriminating against their employees because of sex also prevents them from discriminating against employees because of sexual orientation and gender identity. In response to that…
May we be profoundly shaken
For the past couple of weeks I have taken up Pope Francis’s recent encouragement that we read his encyclical Laudato Si. I’m ashamed to say that I’d never read it before, but I decided that now is as good a time as any…
You are your Brother’s Keeper
Across the country, bishops are gradually beginning to allow public Masses again. This process will be slow-going, and the dioceses that are reopening have extended the dispensation of the faithful from their obligation to attend Sunday Mass. How public liturgies look…
Is this a divine punishment?
I think it’s completely natural for believers to look at this pandemic and the profound suffering it is causing and ask themselves “why?” The Catechism calls the experience of suffering and evil a “scandal” before going on to say, “If…
At every time and in every place
Millions of Catholics around the world are now facing the reality that they won’t be able to attend any Holy Week liturgies or receive Communion on Easter Sunday. The Triduum is one of my favorite times of the year. I…
“I am with you always”
When I hear the words “Apostolic Penitentiary,” I don’t usually think about the maternal love of the Church (actually, I had to go to Wikipedia to look up exactly what this tribunal does when I first heard of it). However, when I…
Who we know God is
Recently I’ve been struck by a verse in chapter seventeen of John’s Gospel. Jesus is with his apostles during the last supper, offering a long prayer, and at one point he says to his Heavenly Father, “Now this is eternal…
Be Perfect
The gospel reading today ends with Jesus summing up his great Sermon on the Mount by saying, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We can easily misunderstand what this passage means and leave feeling like Jesus is placing…
The Living Bridge to LGBT Catholics
Earlier this month I attended a talk by Dr. Mary Healy, professor of Sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, during the 2020 Encounter Conference on the topic of Christian unity. Dr. Healy proposed a wonderful image for ecumenism that I’ve been…
