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.

We’ve all heard the parable of the prodigal son countless times.  In a book I started reading, the author brought up this story to demonstrate a point about trust.  She explained that neither son truly knew their father.  The younger son thought he had lost his father’s love due to leaving and disobeying him.  The older son thought his hard work could earn his father’s love. I have never looked at the story with this perspective and thought of it being a story about knowing and trusting the Father.  But if we truly know and trust God, we will know that there is nothing we can do to lose or earn God’s love.  He loves us just because we exist.  And as the parable of the prodigal son demonstrates, His love is much greater than our expectations.

In a worldly sense, we have to work to achieve more and earn approval.  Whether it’s at school, at work, academically, or athletically, the more work we put in and the more “stuff” we do, the higher up the ladder we will be and the more other people around us will notice.  It’s good to work hard and show effort in our daily activities.  However, we must remember that this does not translate to our spiritual lives and relationship with God.  There is nothing we can do that will make God see us or love us more.  He already sees each one of us individually, knows us, and loves us.

Think about the love that parents have for their children.  If you are a parent, think about how much you love your kids, not because of anything they have done or achieved, but because of who they are and the fact that they exist.  Or, think about how you, as a son or daughter, have experienced the unconditional love of your parents.  Now think about how much more God loves us- no matter what we do or don’t do.  That is something that always blows my mind.  If we can trust that our parents will never stop loving us and that we don’t have to earn their love, why would we ever not trust that God will never stop loving us and that we cannot earn His love?
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Of course, the fact that God loves us unconditionally is not an excuse to live recklessly, do whatever we want, or choose to turn away from Him.  However, it is a reason to remember that when we sin and choose something other than Him, He loves us just the same and is waiting for us to run back to Him.  The fact that God loves us unconditionally is also a reason to realize that God loves us too much for us to stay the same.  He is always calling us to more- to a deeper faith and greater trust.

My prayer for today is that we would not just love God, but also fully trust in Him and His love.  May we all trust that God is a good Father who will never turn His back on us and who will embrace us with open arms no matter what.

I recently listened to a homily from Fr. Mike Schmitz where he talked about how comfort breeds complacency.  This is something we’ve probably all heard before.  However, when it comes to our spiritual lives, it can be so easy to fall into this way of living without thinking too much of it.  When we are complacent, it means we are satisfied and not willing to change.  How often do we become comfortable in our lives and feel as if we don’t need to change?  How many times do we take a look within ourselves and think that it is good enough to keep doing the same things?

It’s really easy to tell ourselves that our lives are good the way that they are and that we don’t want them or need them to change.  If we go to mass each Sunday, pray every day, and treat others with kindness, that’s good enough, isn’t it?  That’s what we can sometimes tell ourselves because we are comfortable with our routines and what we are already doing.  However, when we do the same things over and over, we get comfortable, which leads us to become complacent.  And we become complacent, we stop growing and we are not allowing ourselves to be stretched and transformed.  Our faith cannot become deeper when we become comfortable.

Each time we have an encounter with Christ, we must change.  How could we experience Him working in our lives and not go to greater heights?  If we are really following Jesus, we will continually work to become more like Him.  And that means that we will not allow ourselves and our lives to be cushioned by comfort and complacency.  We will work to love those around us better and love those who may be hard for us to love.  We will give more generously and without counting the cost.  We will make more sacrifices, big or small, for others in our lives.  We will serve with love.  We will speak the truth when it is inconvenient and hard.  We will do these things because Jesus has shown us how.  And even if we think we are already doing these things, we must keep working because our lives should look significantly different than those who don’t follow Christ.

If we are not deepening our faith and moving closer to Christ, we might as well be going backwards- losing faith and moving further from Him.  The key to strengthening our faith and deepening our relationship begins with recognizing that we cannot be satisfied with doing the same things over and over and believing that our current habits are good enough.  Otherwise, our faith will stay the same.  
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My prayer is that we would not become comfortable and content in our daily routines and that our sights would always be set on living lives that reflect Christ.  May we reject complacency and comfort and choose to walk the path that leads us closer to him.

A few weeks ago, I was at a meeting and was struck by some words from the person leading us in the closing prayer.  We were sitting outside and she prayed, “Lord, thank you for these mosquitoes, because being able to feel these bites means that we’re alive.”  Wow- what a powerful perspective. She took something annoying and inconvenient and turned it into something to be seen as a blessing.  Gratitude is everything and we must challenge ourselves each day to look beyond the struggles and crosses to see all of the blessings in our lives and the goodness of God.

When our prayer lives and really just our whole attitudes are ones of gratitude, we are able to see the world around us in a different light.  When we live lives that are rooted in gratitude, our faith grows deeper.  God loves us and wants only what is best for us.  Everything he gives us and all that happens is for our good, whether we can see it or not.

If we truly believe that God loves us and is always working in our lives, we will respond by living with hearts that are filled with gratitude.  We will find joy in the small things, count our blessings, and acknowledge that all that is good in our lives is a gift from God.

Living with gratitude does not mean that we will not suffer or have struggles and difficulties.  However, it does mean that we can go through these times with a different perspective- a deep awareness and trust that God is always walking with us.  When our hearts are filled with gratitude, we are able to see times of suffering and hardship as an opportunity to be drawn closer to the Lord.

The most joy-filled people I know are those who are always grateful.  Living with gratitude helps us to cultivate other good fruits in our lives such as generosity, humility, patience, peace, and more.  It helps us to turn our focus away from ourselves and towards God.  When we have a grateful disposition, we expand our capacity to love both God and others because we are able to better recognize the blessings that they are.  We are able to receive the people in our lives and the experiences we have as a true gift.
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My prayer is that God would fill our hearts until they are overflowing with gratitude and help us to thank Him always.  We are alive today and that is reason enough to praise Him.

I’m currently reading a book called, Heart of the Christian Life: Thoughts on Holy Mass, by Pope Benedict XVI.  The book has been filled with countless pieces of wisdom and many statements to reflect on.  One passage towards the beginning of the book that jumped out as I was reading is, “The Sunday precept is not, therefore, an externally imposed duty, a burden on our shoulders.  On the contrary, taking part in the Celebration, being nourished by the Eucharistic Bread and experiencing the communion of their brothers and sisters in Christ is a need for Christians, it is a joy; Christians can thus replenish the energy they need to continue on the journey we must make every week” (Benedict XVI 13).  If attending and participating in the Mass weekly is essential for our journey, why are the churches so empty?

There are likely a wide range of reasons why so many Catholics choose not to attend Mass.  But I think it really comes down to ignorance about the “source and summit” of our faith-the Eucharist.  How many Catholics either just don’t know or don’t believe?  Because once one knows that Jesus Christ is truly and fully present at the altar, how could anyone skip out on Mass?  How could anyone who knows and believes in the Real Presence turn his/her back on Him?

People can know and believe every single teaching of the Church.  But if they don’t know or believe the truth about the Eucharist, then everything else loses its significance.  Because in reality, it is the Mass and the Eucharist that transform everything- our faith, our hearts, our souls, and our lives.  And if we are not going to Mass, we are missing out on the greatest gift He has given us. 

The world is a broken and hurting place.  There is a lot of suffering and weariness.  But God doesn’t leave us to walk through each week alone.  He gives Himself to us completely in every single Mass.  It is in the Mass where we can find hope, peace, joy, love, strength.  It is where we are nourished and replenished for the journey.  
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It takes faith to believe that Jesus is present under the appearances of bread and wine.  And when we have that faith, we have to share it with others, so that they too would come to know and believe.  As the Eucharistic Revival takes place across the country over the next several years, pray that lives would be changed, faith renewed, and hearts filled with love for Jesus in the Eucharist.

Last Wednesday was the first session of faith formation.  As we worked through the first class of the year, the moments of quiet were few and far between.  Most of the students just kept talking and having side conversations.  Eventually, we began working through the first lesson in “Encounter: Discovering Jesus”, which is an exercise/experience provided by the Diocesan Office of Discipleship Formation.  It is meant to be a reflective experience that shares the core message of the Gospel.  And as this first lesson of the reflective experience unfolded, I was amazed at how God so clearly revealed Himself.  How often do we find ourselves forgetting the power of God, especially in the small, ordinary moments of our days?  Do we remember that God is working, even if it’s hard for us to see?

Teaching eighth graders, it can sometimes feel like talking to a brick wall.  Are they really hearing anything that is said?  Do they even care?  So many of the students seem to be so resistant to faith and God in general.  The first lesson we worked on that night was “God is love and has created me for relationship with Him.”  The class went through the scripture passage and the guided reflection questions.  Then, we made it to the song.  As the song played, they were asked to reflect on a letter from God.  The letter detailed God’s love for each of them individually.  They continued to talk during this part of the exercise.  But what happened after is what convinced me that even if it seems like they are not listening to what I say, they are hearing what God wants to say to them.  There were a wide range of reactions and emotions to this portion of the exercise and I truly believe that they were being hit with the realization of the deep love God has for each one of them, whether or not they wanted to accept it.

I looked up towards the end of the song as one of the girls was crying, asking if she could leave to go to the restroom.  I didn’t know what was happening at first, but felt moved to pray before dismissing her from the room.  In these next moments, the room was silent.  For the first time in the whole class period, every single student was quiet.  Everyone suddenly stopped with the distractions and extra conversations and turned their focus away from themselves and to their classmate.  God broke through their resistance in those moments, as the class lifted up the girl in prayer.  They opened up their hearts and allowed God to use them.

Maybe you have family members, friends, co-workers, or neighbors who are resistant to faith, the church, and a relationship with God.  God’s love can touch and soften the hardest of hearts.  If we don’t believe this, we are doubting the power of His love.  Continue to share God with others and just know that He will reveal Himself.  
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God is more powerful than we can even imagine and will draw others nearer to Himself.  Trust that He has the power to break down walls that people have put up around their hearts.  All in His own time and in His own ways.

A few weekends ago, we painted our living room.  Now, we are preparing to paint the kitchen this week.  Over the weekend, we moved stuff from the kitchen to the living room and to other parts of the house so that we could get the ceiling done.  Our kitchen table chairs are in the living room and everything else is also out of place.  There are old sheets spread out on the floor, serving as drop cloths, paint supplies and materials sitting out, and the house is just a bit chaotic to say the least.  It’s one of those times that you just hope no one shows up at your door.  Who wants guests in the midst of mess and chaos?  Maybe we’ve had this thought about our relationship with Jesus and about letting Him into our lives?  Maybe we sometimes feel like our lives are not in order and question why Jesus would want to come into the mess.  Maybe we sometimes feel unworthy.  We ARE unworthy.  But Jesus gives Himself to us anyway.

In today’s (Monday) Gospel, we read about the Roman Centurion asking for his ill servant to be healed.  He says, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.  Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed” (Luke 7:6-7).  With deep trust, faith, and humility, He acknowledges his unworthiness for Jesus to come into his home and asks that Jesus heal his servant just by speaking.  We echo this line of the Centurion right before communion.

Every time we go to mass, we say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”  In that moment, as the priest holds up the consecrated host, and as we are about to go up to receive Jesus Christ in the Eucharist-body, blood, soul, and divinity, we acknowledge that we are in the presence of Jesus, and that we are unworthy of His sacrifice, unworthy to receive Him.  We acknowledge our weaknesses and our sinfulness and trust that Jesus can come into the mess and chaos and strengthen and heal us.
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We are unworthy of this deep encounter with Jesus.  And yet, He allows us to receive Him in this way because He loves us and wants to dwell within us- to heal us, strengthen us, and nourish us.  With deep faith, we must humbly acknowledge His presence and trust that He can heal us.  Our lives may be chaotic and out of order.  We are weak and sinful.  Just open the door of your heart.  We are not worthy.  But Jesus wants to come in anyway.