Pursuing individual happiness will never make you happy. Personal happiness is often the byproduct of holiness – but it is never the goal. [Tweet This] Before everyone freaks out, let me explain what I mean. The process of becoming holy, or…
Holiness (not Happiness) is the Goal
You say Epiphany, I say Apophany
I’m currently helping facilitate a session of the Great Adventure Bible Timeline Bible study. This is a great Bible study, based on Jeff Cavins’ Bible timeline. It takes you through the books of the Bible as an historical narrative of…
The Feast of the Transfiguration
Readings for The Feast of the Transfiguration One of the bible’s names for the God is “El Shaddai” or “God of the Mountains.” And from the very beginning of salvation history, we see that mountains are a special place to…
The Hair Stylist, the Mass and the Martyr
Acts 29:1-8 was the First Reading that morning, recounting the story of Paul traveling from Corinth to Ephesus. There he found disciples who became believers through the baptism of repentance by John and were waiting for Jesus. They said, “We…
Joy
I was on retreat Saturday with our middle and high school youth ministry core teams. One of our deacons gave a talk on joy and said it was necessary to have joy in order to share the Good News with…
You are what you eat
Readings for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time A few years back George Gallup conducted a poll called “Religion in America.” He studied two groups of Americans, regular churchgoers from various Christian churches on the one hand, and totally unchurched…
St Teresa of Avila’s Four Waters
In her first book, the book of her life, St. Teresa describes prayer and the spiritual life in terms of a garden and of water, using four types of receiving water to describe the stages of prayer life. St. Teresa…
Red Hot Sinner
Have you ever been to Jerusalem? When you step out in early morn there is a chill in the air and by noon it’s so hot that you can hardly breathe and all you want to do is find a…
From Inauthentic Evangelizer to Witness
How authentic are you as an evangelizer? When people ask you questions, are your responses what you experience? Or a idealistic, textbook answer? Pope Francis writes, “people prefer to listen to witnesses: they ‘thirst for authenticity’ and ‘call for evangelizers…
Hidden meaning of the Loaves and Fish
Readings for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time Finding the hidden meanings. Unraveling mysteries. Deciphering symbols. The thrill inherent in all this is partly why Dan Brown’s book, the Da Vinci Code, sold so well. But Brown’s secret code, the…