Last Friday, the Church celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family.  Reflecting and meditating on the Holy Family, we must look to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as an example.  The Holy Family provides us with inspiration and encouragement, and serves as a model of holiness.  However, looking around at the world around us, it’s easy to see that the family is under attack in our society.  It’s no surprise that something so beautiful that comes from God is hated by our culture.  As Catholics and Christians, we must never stop standing up for the gift of the family and sharing its importance.

Satan hates the family and we can see this all around us.  Bodies of government, politicians, and others are trying to redefine marriage by believing that a union between two people of the same gender is marriage.  The importance of a mother and father in a child’s life and the unique and irreplaceable elements that a mom and a dad provide are being ignored, as we see frequent adoption by same-sex couples.  We see couples living together before entering into sacramental marriage, living as though they are already married.  Then there is contraception.  Used far and wide, it promotes promiscuity, objectification, self-gratification, abuse, and is a way for people to reject God’s plan and the gift of life.  This intrinsic evil is where abortion comes in.  The acceptance of contraception is what has led to the widespread acceptance of ending the life of a baby in the womb.  All of these attacks on the family are just a few examples of how Satan is working to break down the family and create dysfunction and confusion.

Our family is what forms us for much of our lives.  It is in our families that we learn how to speak and listen and how to forgive.  We learn about what is true and good.  In the family, we learn what love is, because it is where we first receive love.  Our characters are developed and we discover our values.  Families are not without challenges and difficulties, but through each of our family members and the different gifts and qualities they bring, we are able to grow and deepen our faith and we are led closer to Jesus.  The gift of family is truly one of the greatest blessings we are given by God to help us on the journey.
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The many attempts to destroy the family cannot be condoned.  As people of faith, we cannot just go with the flow and pretend that the breakdown of family is harmless or trivial.  Each one of us, part of a family, needs to work to grow in faithfulness and love, just as Jesus, Mary, and Joseph modeled.  May we all, in our families, grow in holiness each day and show the world the beauty and goodness of family.

Sometimes when you listen to the lyrics of a song you’ve heard countless times, something new stands out or maybe strikes you in a different way.  This has been my experience with a common Christmas song that appears to be pretty basic and surface-level.  “Be near me Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay, close by me forever, and love me I pray.”  These simple yet profound words in the song “Away in a Manger” can serve as a prayer for each one of us on a daily basis.

I think one of the worst things that we could allow to happen in our lives is to become far from Jesus: to live our lives as if He doesn’t exist or like faith doesn’t matter.  We need to always realize the gift God has given to us.  At Christmas mass, it’s easy for us to recognize the gift that God has given us in the birth of Jesus.  During this time, we hear the nativity story and hear the invitation to make room for Jesus in our hearts and invite Him into our lives in a deeper way.  We are reminded that His love is so great that He came humbly as a baby.  But we need to continue to respond to this gift and invitation even after we leave mass on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Jesus wants to be near to us and remain with us always.  And what if we prayed this every day?  In the times when we feel close to Him and the times when we feel distant.  He wants nothing more than for each one of us to desire to be near to Him.  We must never tire of asking this of Him.  We need to take the time to grow closer to Jesus every day.

And what better way to be close to Jesus than by going to mass?  We cannot get any closer to Jesus while on this earth than by receiving Him in the eucharist.  This is the greatest gift we could ever receive and it far surpasses any gift that may have been under our Christmas trees.  And the amazing part is that we can receive this gift, not only every weekend, but every single day if we are able to.

Aside from going to mass and receiving the eucharist, there are many other ways we can stay close to Jesus.  However, each day, we should start with the basics.  Start by simply praying and asking Jesus to be near to you and to remain with you.
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Merry Christmas!  May each one of you stay close to Jesus and experience His presence in this season and always!

During this time of year, we hear so often that it’s not a season of receiving, but of giving.  The general message during these weeks before Christmas is that we shouldn’t be concerned with what we might receive, but rather with what and how we can give.  And these ideas are true, when we are thinking about it in the sense of gifts and material items or about how we can give of ourselves to others.  But if we look at it with a different approach, this time of year is absolutely about receiving.  It’s about receiving Jesus more fully into our hearts.

Advent is a time for us to examine our hearts and our lives and invite Jesus in.  Maybe we need to invite Him into parts that we are withholding from Him.  Or maybe we need to just continue to grow closer to Him and work on deepening our relationship with Him.  During this time, we are all called to purify our hearts, minds, and souls so that we would be able to better receive Him.  We must reflect on the fruits that our lives are bearing and make any necessary changes.  We need to be always ready and alert, mindful of how we are living.

If we don’t spend this time intentionally preparing, our hearts can become cold and hard.  Think about the people you know who don’t know the love Christ has for them.  Think about the people you know who have left the faith because they don’t understand what His love for them means for their lives.  If our hearts become cold and hard, we will block out this truth and become numb to the reality of His love for us.  And then when He comes, we won’t be ready.

This is why it must begin with receiving.  When we receive the love of Christ into our hearts and lives, we become more like Him.  We must allow Him to enter our lives so that we will be transformed and ready to be witnesses.  When we receive Jesus and His love into our hearts, we are better able to help the world around us prepare to receive Him too- in the words we say and how we live.
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In order to give to others and share the love and joy of Jesus with them, we must first receive it in our own hearts.  May we spend these last two weeks of Advent receiving so that we can give.

“I’m praying for you” is simultaneously one of the most powerful and beautiful sentences we can say to another person.  As the Body of Christ, we have the ability and responsibility to pray for others.  And there is a lot of power in that.

There’s a passage from a book I read sometime last year that explains it well.  In This Present Paradise: A Spiritual Journey with St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, author Claire Dwyer writes “That’s part of the power of our prayer, too, to help others, in some mysterious way, to carry their crosses and to trust God in their most cruciform moments.  How often have we heard someone say, “It was your prayers that got me through?’  That’s not just a sentiment: it is a real spiritual exchange that people experience whenever someone carries another in his or her prayers.  It is being part of the Body of Christ, being bound to one another” (138).  As this passage reveals, there is a lot of weight to our offer to pray for others.

When we tell another person we will pray for them, it should not just be a nice sentiment or a fleeting comment that we offer and then never think about again after the moment passes.  Our promise to pray for someone should be just that- a promise.  Because prayer changes everything.  It is the prayers of others that help us along the journey.

Lifting others up to God in prayer is one of the greatest acts of love we can offer.  To pray for others is to carry them and their intentions right into the hands of Jesus.  And if you have been the recipient of prayer from anyone at any point, you have surely felt this in a real and deep way.

​That God would allow us to cooperate with Him in this way is a gift and privilege.  Praying for other members of the Body of Christ has a powerful impact.  Praying for others can help us feel more connected to others, deepen our relationships, and help us grow in our faith.  And when we pray for others, our hearts are changed as well.  Our capacity to love God and others is expanded.

Pray for other people often.  And when you let someone know you will pray for them, remember the power in those words.  May we build up the Body of Christ by carrying one another in prayer always.  

Last Wednesday I went to mass at a nearby parish for Thanksgiving.  I arrived a little more than ten minutes before mass started.  I was glad to arrive a bit early, so I could spend the time before mass, praying, reflecting, and enjoying the quiet, especially after a long day of work before the long weekend that was ahead.  But instead of a time of peace and quiet, the church was filled with noise and non-stop conversations.  It’s no surprise that the world around us doesn’t stop talking.  But our churches should be the one place where we can find silence and stillness easily, without having to put in effort to find it.  If we aren’t listening, how do we expect to hear God?

When I say that the church was filled with noise before mass, I am not talking about babies or little kids.  (It is good to hear these sounds!)  There were conversations going on throughout the church between adults sitting in the pews.  Some were in loud whispers and others were at normal volume, almost as if those in conversation had no idea where they were sitting and Who they were sitting before.  There is nothing wrong with offering a greeting to someone as you arrive or saying a few words to others around you.  But to sit there having full out conversations for more than a few minutes just doesn’t seem appropriate.  

The time before mass is not a social event or time to catch up with the people next to you.  It’s a time to quiet our hearts and minds, be still, and listen.  It’s time to pray and to prepare to encounter the God of the universe who makes Himself present on the altar during each and every single mass. 

The time before every mass we go to should be spent in prayer and reflection.  However, now that we are in the season of Advent, this is especially important.  The world around us is anything but quiet right now.  It is busy, loud, and hurried.  But we are called to slow down and be quiet, to wait and prepare, to stop and to listen.  And we must carve out time to listen.  We must be intentional about seeking out silence.  If we cannot even find this in church, why would we find it anywhere else?
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God wants to speak to each one of us individually.  And He will.  But we must listen.  And we can only listen when we are quiet.  My prayer for each of us is that we would seek out silence and find time to be quiet not only before mass, but in our homes, and throughout random moments of our days.  Let Jesus speak to you and spend these four weeks of Advent preparing room for Him in your heart!

It seems like a lot of Americans have a sort of fascination with the royal family.  Many people are intrigued by and invested in the lives of those in line of succession to the British throne.  I think one of the main reasons for this interest in the royal family is that we don’t have any leaders in our country with the title of queen or king.  We cannot really grasp the concept and we don’t really know what it means.  But as Catholics, we should be aware of who a king is supposed to be and what it means for our lives.  We have the most powerful king there could ever be.  And His name is Jesus.
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This past Sunday, we celebrated the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.  While Jesus has many different titles, king seems to be one of the best and most important.  A king is someone who is a supreme ruler and someone who has authority.  When we think about the role that Christ has in our lives, it should resemble that of a king.  It is easy to say that He is king and to acknowledge this truth in our minds.  But letting it be the reality takes it much further, and can be challenging for us.

If we allow Jesus to be the king of our hearts, it means that he reigns in all aspects of our lives.  It means that we surrender our lives to Him every day.  As king of the universe and king of our hearts, we must allow Him to take complete control of our lives.  When we allow Him to be king , we acknowledge that our lives are not our own and that everything we have is His and all that we do is for Him.

As a king, Christ rules with love and mercy and He models perfect humility and service.  When He is king of our whole lives, we listen to Him, serve Him, follow Him, and love Him.  We allow Him to lead us and guide us and we try to become more like Him.

Jesus Christ is the king of the universe.  He wants to reign in our hearts and be the ruler of our lives.  And when we accept His kingship, our lives become much better because His ways are better than our own.  What or who really rules your life?  My prayer for each one of us is that we would be able to say that it is truly Jesus.

This past Saturday, I attended a young adult Catholic conference in Milwaukee.  It was only a one day conference that lasted 12 hours but it was so impactful.  It was one of those experiences that was very refreshing and much needed.  One of the speakers in one of the sessions spoke about how we often think we can move on from the basic messages of our faith because we want to get to the deeper theological ideas.  But we must spend our whole lives becoming more aware and responding to the most seemingly basic message that God loves us.  It is easy for us to become numb to this statement.

God loves us.  Of course we know this.  We’ve heard this so many times in our lives that we can easily brush off this statement.  But how many times do we really soak this in?  How often do we really reflect on the fact that God loves each and every single one of us so much that He suffered and died for us?

We know in our minds that God loves us.  But we often don’t think about it because we don’t let it really sink into the depths of our hearts and lives.  And sometimes, we need to be hit with this realization again to let it really impact our lives.

In one of the sessions at the conference, the speaker told us to close our eyes as she prayed aloud.  The band played a song as we prayed.  All of a sudden, my eyes were wet and tears were rolling down my face.  And they just kept coming.  In those moments, I had no idea why I was crying.  The only explanation I have is that God broke through the surface level of my heart and I was hit with the reality of God’s deep and unconditional love.  In those moments, I was hit with an overwhelming experience of God’s love for me.

We all need these experiences sometimes because it reminds us that God’s love for us changes everything.  It reminds us that it is His love alone that gives purpose and meaning to our lives.  As St. John Paul II said, “What really matters in life is that we are loved by Christ and that we love Him in return. In comparison to the love of Jesus, everything else is secondary. And, without the love of Jesus, everything is useless.”  These experiences where we encounter God’s love for us moves this reality from our heads to our hearts.
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When was the last time you experienced God’s love in a way that really hit your heart?  When was the last time you were hit with a deep awareness of His love?  My prayer for today is that you would experience God’s love for you in a real and tangible way in the next week, whether in mass, adoration, confession, or just in an ordinary moment of your day.  Allow this truth to overwhelm you and flood the depths of your heart and soul.

At work on Monday, I was so focused on my computer and the emails and tasks I was working on that I didn’t even notice how dark it had gotten when 5:00 PM hit and it was time to leave.  It seemed to come out of nowhere, but it was only because I hadn’t noticed the gradual changing of the sky.  I wasn’t looking out the window or paying attention, even though I should have known how dark it would be because of clocks being turned back over the weekend.  A different kind of darkness can slip into our lives in the same way.  If we are not paying attention, or remaining alert and mindful, it is easy for darkness to seep into our lives without us noticing.

Everything we watch, listen to, and surround ourselves with can have an impact on us.  Everything we take in on a daily basis can affect our thoughts, and furthermore, our actions.  When we consume anything that is contrary to Christ and the Gospel, it leads us to tolerate and accept evil and sin.  We may find ourselves brushing it off as no big deal.  But it is a huge deal.  Because when we tolerate and accept the evil and sin in our culture, and within our own lives, we grow further away from Christ.

How many times have you watched a TV show that you probably shouldn’t have been watching?  And maybe you tried to justify it by telling yourself, “it’s just a show” or “it’s just for entertainment.”  Have you ever been a part of a conversation with a group of people that involved gossip or disrespecting someone’s reputation?  Maybe it was easier to not walk away or end the conversation because you wanted to fit in.  These are just a few examples of the many ways we can allow darkness into our lives.  Seemingly small choices, such as these, are choices that people often do not realize are impacting them negatively.

Darkness is strong and powerful and can easily overtake us.  But the good thing is, Christ and His light are stronger.  In every choice we make, we must pay attention and remain alert so as to notice what is around us and what we are taking in and how it affects us and our relationship with Him.
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May we all take time to more carefully examine our choices.  Are they pulling us into the darkness or are they drawing us more closely to Christ and His light?      

In a podcast of a homily I listened to a few days ago, the priest was discussing how there are two different relationships that cannot have any rivals, one being marriage and the other being a relationship with Jesus.  The way Fr. Mike defined rivals to demonstrate his point is “a person or a thing competing with another for the same objective.”  He made the point that these are both “all or nothing” kinds of relationships.  He went on to talk about how we often allow Christ to have rivals in our lives.  What rivals does Jesus have in our hearts and in our lives?  

We so often seek out our purpose, meaning, and fulfillment in material possessions, various tasks and responsibilities, our jobs, our hobbies, and our accomplishments.  In and of themselves, none of these are bad.  But these things can easily be the rivals of God in our lives; the things that are competing with Him for the number one place in our lives and hearts.  These rivals offer false promises to us that, over time, will only leave us empty and unsatisfied.  God is the only one who can give us the purpose, meaning, and fulfillment that we are longing for.  And the only way we can fully experience this is if we remove any competition for the number one spot in our lives and in our hearts.

As Catholics and Christians, at some point, we all have had to make the choice about our faith.  Either Jesus is everything or He is nothing.  And once we make that choice, we must live our lives accordingly.  When we have an encounter with Christ, that is when we usually recognize that our lives should be different because of Him.  We will mess up and we will never be perfect at putting Him first.  But what matters is that we don’t lose sight of the fact that Jesus is everything and that we continue to have the desire to put Him first, even when we sin and fall short.
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God wants to have our whole hearts.  But He will never force us to remove anything else that is taking up the space that is rightfully His.  God doesn’t want to compete for our hearts.  It is up to each one of us to remove the rivals in our hearts and lives, because our relationship with Him truly is all or nothing.

I used to hate driving on interstates/highways.  I would avoid taking routes that required big highway roads as much as possible, because multiple lanes, merging, faster moving vehicles, exit signs, and a lot of traffic were things that I did not want to deal with.  I would always go through town, even if that meant the drive would require extra time.  Being from a village of 2,000 people that doesn’t even have any traffic lights, most of my early driving experience was through my small community and on back country roads.  Over time, I have become more willing to take the highway and choose to take it on my daily commute to work.  However, just because I drive on the highway daily, it still is not always easy and can be uncomfortable.  Yet, I still take the highway to get to work, because I know it is the best route to get to the destination.  As I think about this example, it seems a bit like our faith.  The more we deepen our faith and work to grow in our faith, the more willing we will be to live it out in our daily lives and share it with others.  But this does not mean it is always easy or comfortable.

If we are truly living out our faith, we probably experience moments that are uncomfortable on a daily basis.  Whether you hear someone make a comment that is anti-Catholic or you are put in a situation where your faith is directly challenged or questioned, it can take a lot of courage to respond in a way that shares the reality and truth of Jesus Christ and His church.

Many times, living out our faith is not just about sharing Church teachings or responding to questions people may have.  It is often much simpler than that.  Living out our faith means choosing not to partake in the gossip among your co-workers in the breakroom.  It means choosing not to watch that Netflix show that glorifies sin.  It means choosing to take time to pray before scrolling mindlessly.  Ultimately, living out our faith means choosing Jesus in whatever we do.  It is simple.  At the same time, it is hard, oftentimes because of our weaknesses and because we make it that way.
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Choosing Jesus is not something that is a one-time decision.  It is something we must do daily, moment by moment.  The more we choose Christ, the more willing we will be to share our faith, letting Him be reflected in our lives.  We will mess up and many times, we will let our desire for comfort and ease overtake our desire for Christ.  When this happens, we can get back on the road and keep moving forward.  Choosing Jesus and sharing our faith is not always easy or comfortable, but it is always the best route.