Very recently at St. Francis Church in Portland, Oregon, a group of parishioners thought it would be a good idea to stage a protest during Holy Mass. The main issue revolves around Fr. George Kuforiji, a priest who came from…
Reverence and Protest at Mass
Seek Understanding
Too much public discourse today seems to be a matter of people saying bad things about those who disagree with them. This sort of argumentative discourse leads to conflict: one group often tries to force its views on the other,…
Live Big, Love Bigger: Getting Real with BBQ, Sweet Tea, and A Whole Lotta Jesus
Here’s a book from Texas native, Kathryn Whitaker, Live Big, Love Bigger: Getting real with BBQ, Sweet Tea and a Whole Lotta Jesus. Now I have been reading Kathryn’s blog for quite a long time. Her party planning posts blew…
Observing Grief
Like you, my mind and my heart are reeling after this latest round of mass shootings. Confusion, grief, fear, and outrage are all swirling around inside me. On top of that, there are the secondary, ancillary indecencies: people immediately politicize…
Five ways to begin sharing your faith
I never meant to be an evangelist. Stepping out in faith to talk about my secret friendship with Jesus made this introvert shudder and retreat. What does it mean to evangelize? Why does God want us to reveal our relationship…
You Don’t Have to Be a Saint to Save Someone
One of the biggest internal obstacles to people sharing the Gospel is their own personal sense of sinfulness. “How can I tell others to live more Christ-like when I don’t live the way I should?” This is the question that…
Get Up Again
Human beings make mistakes. “To err is human”, famously writes Alexander Pope. This means we human beings need forgiveness. A lot of forgiveness! Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As…
The Disease of Secret Sin
In my last article I contrasted public sin and private sin. However, I felt like I wasn’t able to give proper attention to the latter as I was to the former. So allow me to expand on my reflections here….
Yes, You are Enough!
In You Are Enough: What Women of the Bible Teach You About Your Mission and Worth.author Danielle Bean helped me trust the goodness of God through the struggles and victories of fascinating Old Testament women. She writes, “It can be…
Public Sin vs. Private Sin
Brebeuf Jesuit High School in Indiana has been at the center of a news story. One of their faculty members has entered into a same-sex “marriage.” The Archbishop of Indianapolis urged the school to dismiss the teacher for giving public…