I came across a statistic a few days ago that said 52% of Americans report feeling lonely.  I’m not sure how accurate this study was or what kinds of questions the participants were asked, but either way, it caught my attention.  In a world that is so busy and filled with almost constant activity and in a time where we are so connected through the use of technology and social media, how can so many people feel alone?

No matter how many friends we have, how many people we are surrounded by, or how great our families are, we have all probably felt lonely at least one time or another.  Maybe it was in high school or college and you experienced feelings of loneliness when you weren’t invited to do something.  Maybe in the workplace, you felt like you couldn’t connect to any of your co-workers.  Maybe it was on a random weeknight or weekend sitting at home and you felt like you didn’t belong or that people were too busy for you.  If not any of those experiences, surely, you’ve been in situations where the people around you didn’t share your faith and you felt like it was you against the world.  As painful as the experience of loneliness can be, it is a part of the human condition.

Even Jesus experienced loneliness.  In the Garden of Gethsemane and on His journey to the cross, He felt abandoned and alone during the most intense and difficult moments.  And in these moments, he cried out to God the Father.  In His agony, He showed us how to endure the loneliness we will experience in our own lives.  Jesus suffered the ultimate loneliness and made the greatest sacrifice so that our times of loneliness could be filled by His love and presence. 

​Jesus will not always take away our feelings of loneliness.  But He will walk through them with us.  He wants to comfort us and fill us up with the love that only He can give.  He promises to be “with us always” (Matthew 28:20).  We will feel lonely at times but we must remember that we are never truly alone.

When we experience loneliness, it is the perfect time to place ourselves before Jesus and ask Him to speak into the broken and hurting places.  Ask Jesus who you are to Him and ask Him to reveal His heart to you.  Eucharistic adoration is a great place to listen.

We are often tempted to fill the empty parts of our hearts and lives with everything but the One who we’re made for.  When we feel lonely and it seems like nothing is satisfying this ache we have, we must remember the words of St. Augustine, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

In this past weekend’s Gospel, Jesus calls his first disciples.  He calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John.  One line in the scripture passage says “and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:22).  When hearing this Gospel at mass, there was one word that I was struck by: “immediately.”  These disciples did not wait to follow Jesus.  They heard His call and responded right away.  And that’s what we are all called to do if we want to be disciples; follow Him immediately. 

There is no better moment to follow Jesus than every present moment we are in.  He calls each and every one of us to be His disciples and follow Him.  Sometimes, we might tell ourselves that we’re not ready to fully commit.  Maybe we sometimes say that we will say “yes” to following Jesus in a little while or at a later time; once we are a bit older and wiser or once we have it all figured out.  We may have excuses or allow things in our lives to become barriers.  We might say that we will follow Jesus once we get that job, meet certain people, travel to that specific place, or accomplish certain goals.

Following Jesus is hardly ever convenient.  Whenever he calls us to walk with Him more closely, we are probably living life our way and things are going as we planned.  But if we love Him above everything and everyone else in our lives, we will respond and choose to follow him immediately.  We will release our grip on the desires, comforts, pleasures, and priorities we are holding onto that are not of Him.

We may not be called to a dramatic change where we drop everything we are doing and move from where we currently are to a totally different life.  But we are all called to drop certain nets in our lives immediately to choose Jesus and to follow Him more closely.  We all have times when we know Jesus is calling us to do something and we have to decide if we are going to take those  opportunities to do what He is calling us to in those moments.
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May we all follow the example of those first disciples.  My prayer for each and every single one of us is that we would listen to the ways Jesus is calling us to follow Him more closely and that we would respond without hesitation, choosing to walk with Him immediately.

Expectations.  We all have them.  Different aspects of our daily lives naturally have various expectations set up for us.  These include expectations about our jobs, our accomplishments, our behaviors, and the overall way we live our lives.  Expectations are not necessarily bad.  They often help us set standards and allow us to think about the choices we should make.  But if we truly trust God, we must not allow expectations to rule our lives.

To trust in God means more than to simply believe in His existence.  It means to fully give ourselves to Him.  When we trust God completely, we will not obsess about our future plans or worry about what our lives may entail next month, next year, or five years from now.  Our society is continually presenting us with expectations about what we need to accomplish, where we need to go, what items we need to have, and how we should live.  But ultimately, God is in control and He is the only one who knows how our lives will look.  We must look to Him, and not  the world, for guidance on how to live.

To think that we can fully plan our lives and decide what is or isn’t going to happen is of no use.  We often have ideas of how we think our lives should be.  Or, other people have expectations of what our lives should look like.  But when we have these ideas or allow the opinions of others to impact us, this sets us up for disappointment and doubt in the goodness and providence of God.

When we stop setting certain expectations for our lives, we are able to more fully trust that God provides us with what we need.  Our expectations and desires for certain things can cloud our vision of God working in our lives.  And when we fail to see how God is working in our lives, we can lose our trust in Him and question if He is really with us.
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When it comes to living each day, we must open our hands to release any expectations we are clinging to.  We must keep our hands open, ready to receive whatever may come: the gifts God gives us, the suffering He allows, the joys, and challenges.  Trust God completely.  He knows what you need, better than anyone else.

Over the weekend, I worked a TEC (Together Encountering Christ) retreat.  As usual, it was a refreshing experience, working amongst other team members who have a desire to share Jesus with others and grow deeper in their faith.  In his homily at the closing mass on Sunday, the priest, Father Joel, made a statement that stood out to me.  He said, “don’t let anyone steal the joy of the Gospel from you.”  Leaving a retreat and going back to “normal” life, this is a reminder that is so important.

Coming home from retreats can, oftentimes, be difficult.  You go from being in a Christ-centered environment with a community of like-minded individuals to going back into your regular, ordinary routine.  We all have co-workers, friends, classmates, or family members, who either grew up Catholic and don’t want to hear about it anymore, went to Catholic school or religious education for years and believe they know everything there is to know, or have stopped practicing the faith for various reasons.  When we interact with those who have not had the same kinds of faith experiences as us, it can be hard to keep the fire in our hearts alive.  At times, it feels like some of the people around us are trying to diminish the joy of the Gospel and following Jesus.

People can often make us feel many different ways about the faith we have and about the truth we believe in.  If you actively practice your faith, it is likely that you’ve felt lonely, out of place, or different at one time or another.  Maybe you’ve felt like others around you have tried to diminish your faith or dismissed your encounters with Christ.  But we cannot give in to the temptations to become disheartened and to hide our faith.

There is a great deal of joy in knowing the Gospel and truths of our faith and in following Jesus.  If you’ve had a personal encounter with Him at any point, you know this.  You know that living a life of faith and having a relationship with Christ is worth it.  Many times, the people we interact with and the rest of the world will not understand our experiences or our faith.  In fact, they will probably question your faith, shut you down, dismiss you,, or ridicule you.  But Jesus told us they would.
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Whenever you experience Christ in a real and powerful way, let those experiences permeate throughout your life.  Everyone will not understand and it will be hard to persevere.  But keep striving to live out your faith and never let anyone steal the joy of the Gospel from you.

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.