Category: Articles

Mission: Why the Pews Should Be Empty After Mass Articles

Mission: Why the Pews Should Be Empty After Mass

Going to Mass on Sunday is important, in fact, it's essential to the life of the Church. It's good for you. It's good for the parish community. It's good for the world. It's the "source and summit of the christian life", but the Mass ends with some very important words, words of commissioning: "The Mass is ended. Go in peace, proclaiming the Lord by your lives." That's the mission of the Church. That's our mission!
A Baby, Bath Water, and God’s Plan for Your Life Articles

A Baby, Bath Water, and God’s Plan for Your Life

Baby boys have lots of energy. And they don't always know what to do with it. Last night my wife was having a heck of a time trying to give our nine-month-old a bath without making too much of a mess. Of course, he was having a ball kicking and splashing around while she tried to keep ahold of him. Then it was dad's turn. I was tasked with putting on the diaper and pajamas, which usually isn't too difficult. But this time around he was squirming and kicking and making it near impossible to get him dressed. It was a battle, but I arose victorious. It got me thinking about God's plan for us.
The Paradox of Our Time Articles

The Paradox of Our Time

The paradox of our time is that we have taller buildings, but short tempers; Wider freeways, but narrower points-of-view. We waste more, but we have less; Buy more, but enjoy less.
How to Engage the Disengaged and Reinvigorate Your Parish Articles

How to Engage the Disengaged and Reinvigorate Your Parish

Catholics are becoming increasingly disengaged with their faith. It is becoming less and less a part of who they are. What are we to do about this crisis in the Church? How can we engage these who have fallen away, who no longer see their faith—their relationship with God, as an important—essential part of their daily lives?
My Encounter with Jesus on the Cross and Why it Made Me Smile Articles

My Encounter with Jesus on the Cross and Why it Made Me Smile

One night, I spent twenty minutes after my catechism class in adoration of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. To be brief: I left smiling. It was not from any great consolation, but because God has called me to die. I know it doesn't sound like something that would make me smile, but it has.
Follow the Leader: What it Means to Be a Christian Articles

Follow the Leader: What it Means to Be a Christian

To be a Christian means to follow Jesus Christ. But this requires what I consider: the call, the response, and the reward. To follow Jesus you have to first hear the call. If you follow someone without having been asked then you're a stalker. Creepy. Our Lord on the other hand calls you to follow Him, to walk in His ways. He's the leader you should follow.
Avoiding Implosion: How God Rescued Me from Self-Destruction Articles

Avoiding Implosion: How God Rescued Me from Self-Destruction

God rescued me from myself. My sin has always been my self. Growing up in middle-class America I absorbed the false notion of our post-modern, individualistic culture. Life was about me. In fact, it seemed that the world revolved around me, my wants, my needs, my foolish, selfish desires. This is no way to live, in fact it is the quickest way to destruction. To live life always focused on self only leads to eventual self-destruction, an inevitable implosion.
Evangelization: The Way of Pope Francis, the Mission of the Church Articles

Evangelization: The Way of Pope Francis, the Mission of the Church

One of the things that excites me most—and also scares me—about Pope Francis is his style of evangelization. He doesn't look at evangelization as something to be carried out by a designated dicastery or religious order. For Pope Francis evangelization is the call of every Christian, and the mission of the Church. He has proven by example that the Gospel is not a theory or a utopian idea, but the Way, the lifestyle shown to us by Jesus and the saints after him. Evangelization is best achieved through the living out of the Gospel.
True Love Requires Humility, Weakness, and Vulnerability Articles

True Love Requires Humility, Weakness, and Vulnerability

The pursuit of power, pleasure, pride, and possessions seem to be the false god of the world, the golden calf of our present day, the idol we have created for ourselves. But Jesus shows us another way, a better way in humility, weakness, and vulnerability. He has shown us this way of true love on three separate stages of salvation history: the womb, the cross, and the altar.
Pope Francis: Our New Pope with a Name that Packs a Punch Articles

Pope Francis: Our New Pope with a Name that Packs a Punch

What an amazing day! Habemus Papam! We have a pope! And as our new pope stepped out onto the balcony above St. Peter's Square the world looked on in amazement at Pope Francis. His choice of the name Francis I packs a powerful message and it is a message that I personally am excited to hear.
Mumford & Sons: Good Music Should Move Your Soul Articles

Mumford & Sons: Good Music Should Move Your Soul

Good music is more than just mere entertainment, it has an incredible power to touch the depths of our being, to move our souls. Of course, the majority of the music we listen to these days is not good music. In fact, it is bad music. Bad because of the negative effect it has on us. You know good music when you hear it. You feel it, not just emotionally, but spiritually. I have recently encountered this soul-shaking response to Mumford & Sons.