What exactly is the relationship between the Church’s liturgy and the New Evangelization? From one perspective, you might feel as if liturgy is an obstacle, something that’s a barrier to more effective proclamation–just think back to the level of concern surrounding a…
The Two Messages of the Parable of the Sower and the Seed
Readings for July 13, 2014: 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time I’ve always loved gardening. Seeds I’ve planted include carrot, cucumber, and of course, zucchini. In each case, I’ve planted seeds in neat rows, expecting nearly all of them to sprout…
Passing Time, Using Time
Summer is a good time to think about time. Some summer days, time seems to fly by and before we know it, the day is done. On others, time seems to crawl as we struggle to finish a project, or…
Sacraments on the Fly
I used to teach sacraments to adults in RCIA, and to kids in Catechism class. With my current curriculum I don’t have specific lesson plans for sacraments. Now sacramental content is woven into the wider lessons, and over the year a…
Prayer Is Not Magic
“I prayed, but nothing happened.” How often have we heard these words? Maybe they came from someone in an argument about faith. Maybe they came from a child trying to understand God’s plan. Or maybe these words came from ourselves…
Historical Sites of Our Faith
As a cradle Catholic the age of the Catholic Church is not something I thought about until I began working with people who were joining the Church. On an intellectual level I know that as a Church we have been…
The Secret of the Light Yoke
Readings for July 6, 2014: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time I once knew a woman who called herself “a recovering Catholic.” It seems that, as a child, she was taught a religion that was all about guilt. Impossible demands were…
Let True Freedom Ring
The Fourth of July always seems to make people stop and reflect on the core values of our culture. One of these values is freedom. We talk about political freedom, religious freedom, and economic freedom. Listen or read any type…
Distance Learning for Catholics: Training Ourselves for the New Evangelization
During a recent radio segment on The SonRise Morning Show, host Matt Swaim and I took on the topic of “nanodegrees” as described in the New York Times: This week, AT&T and Udacity, the online education company founded by the Stanford…
The Fourth of July and a Revolutionary Approach to the Bible
In the days when states were still “the colonies” and men wore powdered wigs, a new way of thinking captured the intelligentsia of the western world. “The miracle stories in the Bible and the lives of the saints may be…