Hope in the Imperfect

I recently received a class-wide email from another mother of a child in my son’s preschool class. She had joined the class for a Thanksgiving celebration and stopped to ask each child what they were most thankful for.  Touched by…

Good for the Soul

For many people confessing our faults to anyone else is not easy.  We fear looking bad or what others will think about us.  It also makes us very vulnerable to tell our failings to another person.  Yet the sacrament of…

Advent: A Season of Hope

Readings for December 9, 2012: Second Sunday of Advent Faith, hope, and love.  St. Paul, in I Corinthians 13:13, say these three are the bottom line.  They are called the theological virtues, the qualities that make us most like God….

Giving of Ourselves

I recently read an article entitled “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” written by Peter Singer. In the article, Singer suggests that, if all people were to give as much as morally achievable to the poor (he calls this marginal utility), we could…

Gracious Communication in the Internet Age

Today was going along just fine — productive, happy, and relatively stress free — until a certain email crossed my desk. The name and subject of the email will be withheld so that hopefully I can forget this dialogue ever…

Have a Holly Jolly Advent

It’s beginning to look a lot like Advent, everywhere you go… All I want for Advent is my two front teeth… Advent is a coming, the goose is getting fat… On the first day of Advent my true love gave…

The New Evangelization on tumblr

The New Evangelization on tumblr

In a recent conversation among my community of friars, we discussed Pope Benedict’s 2012 address on World Communications day, The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in the Digital World. One of the older friars asked, “Why just the priests? Why not everyone?…

Bring a Friend

One of the ways you can celebrate the Year of Faith is to bring a friend to church. A personal invitation to a neighbor, coworker or family member can be effective—and yet risky. The great calling of the New Evangelization…

Old Style Evangelization Made New Again

“Mom, there’s someone at the door.” It was a Saturday morning and I hadn’t showered yet. I’m pretty sure I had only had one cup of coffee, so all my brain cells weren’t firing yet. That must be why I…

Lessons from Catholic Missions

Today, December 3rd, is the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, the Patron Saint of Missions, so let’s reflect for a moment on how we can apply the success of Catholic missions abroad to our local New Evangelization efforts. Without the…