Am I trying too hard? Or not hard enough? This is the question I have been asking myself (and God) lately. I've been asking this about the RCIA program I am involved in as a facilitator. You see the issue is I feel like the program should be more than it seems to be right …
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Don’t Build a Bigger Barn
Yesterday's gospel reading was the "Parable of the Rich Fool" - Luke 12:13 - 21. This parable is about a rich man who has so much grain he doesn't know what to do with it. He decides to tear down his old barns and build a bigger one. He figures he will be all set …
The Truth Will Set Us Free
Every once in a while I will come across something that just strikes me in a certain way. Whether it is a passage from Scripture or a line from one of the thousand other things I seem to always be reading. Today it is a line from the Book of Proverbs. The justice of the …
And Now Some Joyful Noise
I realize my last few posts have been a little on the somber and serious side, so today I decided to lighten up the mood. I actually got this idea while at Mass this morning. Did any of you realize the church was at the forefront of text message shorthand hundreds of years ago? I'm …
Enough is enough
One of the biggest obstacles I faced when I began my journey back to the church was that of the "Clergy Abuse" crisis. How could I believe in an institution that covers up severe wrongdoing by those who we are supposed to trust? According to the Catholic Church, they are the absolute moral authority. We …
Thou Shalt Not Kill
Since beginning my journey back to the Catholic faith, there have been many times when I have questioned the teachings of the Church. Even though I question them after researching them and thinking about them I find myself agreeing with the Church's position. One of these questions involved the death penalty. Prior to this week, …
The More Things Change
The more they stay the same. I've found myself doing more and more reading lately, really getting into various Papal documents, things like encyclicals and exhortations. One of these is fairly recent, "Evangelii Gaudium" or "The Joy of the Gospel" written by Pope Francis. I get my copies through Verbum.com but you can get them …
Give Me Strength
I don't normally talk about my past other than to say I wasn't the best Catholic or Christian and I made a lot of bad choices. But the last few days have brought back some memories of when I was younger, mostly about my Dad. This past Tuesday my wife had a total hip replacement …
God Bless America
Happy Independence Day! Today is the 242nd anniversary of this great country of ours. It's sad to think of how many of our fellow Americans have forgotten some of the principles this country was founded on. I am going to share some of them today. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men …
Catholicism Crisis: The Immigration Debate
I'm having a Catholicism Crisis. What is a Catholicism Crisis? I define it as being torn between what the Catholic Church teaches and what I believe. At one time my whole life was a Catholicism Crisis, after all, I came from that post-Vatican II era when catechizing was almost non-existent and attitudes about many Catholic …