One of the realities of parish and community life today is that we nearly always have a meeting of multiple cultures. My own parish is home to first-generation European, Asian, Latin-American, Middle Eastern, and African immigrants, born-and-raised Americans from several…
Culture and Evangelization: Working with the People You’ve Got
Are You a Prophet?
Throughout our lectionary readings at Mass during this month of December we hear of and from a lot of prophets. Isaiah, Zechariah, Elijah, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Malachi, Nathan, and even the New Testament prophets, John the Baptist and Anna. These prophets…
Celebrating the Holy Family
Readings for December 28, 2014: The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph The Passion of the Christ was the most intense movie I’ve ever seen. But there was a moment of comic relief, a flashback to a young Jesus…
Back to Basics
Many of us identify ourselves as Roman Catholics. We go to Church on Sunday. We celebrate the major feasts of the Church and we try to lead healthy and fulfilling Catholic lives, based on the tenants of the faith, in…
11 Easy Ways to Evangelize at Christmas
Christmas is the origin of Christian evangelization in the world because the primary Eucharistic event of our faith is the birth of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s Living Word made flesh in the womb of the…
Christmas Has a Deeper Meaning
Readings for December 25, 2015: The Nativity of the Lord (Mass at Dawn) In the days of Caesar Augustus, an era of peace was established in the Mediterranean world after centuries of strife. But this peace was forged by the…
Plans of Man, Plans of God
Christmas is upon us. And there is no better time to remember how wonderfully unexpected it all was. To be sure, the Israelites were desperately waiting and expecting the coming of the Messiah. But God has a funny way of…
Giving God the Gift of Obedience
You know the drill. You’ve got the list. It includes relatives close and distant, the neighbor’s kids, teachers, friends and so on. But I’ll bet there’s someone of great import that you left off your list: God. Right, that’s God,…
Our Savior has Come
T’was the night before Christmas, when deep in my soul I felt such a peace, not even a worry The manger was set, the tree lights twinkled Knowing Jesus would soon be here The faithful were sure the Son would…
The Mystery of the Incarnation
Readings for December 21, 2014: Fourth Sunday of Advent “Mystery,” he sneered. “That’s a good Catholic word.” My friend was a fundamentalist who had more than a bit of antipathy towards the Catholic Church, charging that it added to the…