The Big Rock
Vocational Reflections on Trinity Sunday My seminary classmates and I were told by a certain theology professor, “If you get up to the ambo on Trinity Sunday for your homily, and all you say is, ‘The Trinity is a mystery so we can’t explain it,’ I will come and hunt you down.” So far I […]
“From Now On, You Will be Fishers of Men”
This article originally appeared in Into the Depths, the vocations newsletter of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man,” Peter said. But Jesus replied, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be fishers of men. “ And St. Luke tells us that after that, Peter […]
The Person Gift
If you were to think of the best going-away present ever, what would it be? How about the gift of always being present? When transitions occur and people have to depart, or when a person we love passes away, we encounter the real poverty of our finite existence. Love would bind us together with those […]
Wake up, sheeple, it’s Good Shepherd Sunday!
A Reflection on the readings for the Fourth Sunday in Lent (Good Shepherd Sunday), Year C. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, says of his sheep, “I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.” And in the reading from […]
The Stillness of Holy Saturday
This article, written by seminarian Ryan Mattingly, appeared in the March-April issue of Into the Depths, the newsletter for the Office of Priestly Vocations of the Diocese of Peoria. “Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror […]
How to Train Your Noble Aspirations
“Lord, I am prepared to go to prison and to die with you.” Each of us has noble aspirations. Each of us has the desire of total self-gift hidden deep within our human nature, beneath the strata of selfishness and pride. “Man cannot find himself,” St. John Paul II continually reminded us, “except in a […]
God is With Us in the Desert
Reflection on the Readings for the Second Sunday in Lent, Year C. In this reflection, I touch on the presence of God with us, the desire for heaven that is stoked by prayer, and the purification necessary to continue on our journey of union with God. The Transfiguration is God’s promise that, not only will […]
Temptations Are Just Bad Solutions
Another reflection on the readings for the First Sunday in Lent, Year C. View Part I here. In the drama of fidelity and temptation, we find ourselves wanting in trust, obedience, and constancy. But we never find ourselves wanting in grace, because Jesus, who is perfectly united to the Father, is also within us through […]
Victory Through Core Weakness
A reflection on the readings for the First Sunday in Lent, Year C. Alone with Christ in the desert, we see the cyclical repetition of the drama of fidelity and temptation. At every crucial moment in the history of the Israelites, God would call them to once again “hear” the story of salvation, not as […]
You Are Special (No, Really)
Reflections on the readings for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C. A shorter version of this reflection originally appeared in the Catholic Post. You are special. You were born for something great. Children have been told this for a generation. Growing up I remember “all about me” time in school, participation awards, and […]