A teenager who breaks up with his girlfriend tears up her pictures. An artist displeased with a line in a figure drawing gets out the eraser. Even I, as I typed this homily, made frequent use of the delete key. When we want to contextualize the past so we can move forward, this is how…
It’s hard to hear the truth
Whenever I get nervous about preaching a homily, I return to the fact that, in the Bible, God speaks a prophetic word through a donkey. So, if he should choose to speak through me it isn't all that much to be proud about, or nervous about. God speaks how he wants and as he will.…
A father helps you become your best self
In the Odyssey, after Odysseus finally makes it home, he sees his father Laertes for the first time in twenty years. Homer writes, Odysseus found his father in solitude spading the earth around a young fruit tree. He wore a tunic, patched and soiled, and leggings - oxhide patches, bound below his knees against the…
The three goals of Corpus Christi
In 1348, in a small town in Spain, a priest is carrying the Eucharist to dying parishioners. He's crossing a river on his mule when he is swept off by a sudden wave, tumbling into the water along with the ciborium. The Hosts fall out and are carried away by the current. The priest is…
How to actively participate in Mass
We're journeying into a brave new Catholic world. Temporarily, at least. This world has none of you helping me distribute communion, very little singing, and no offertory procession. I have to do all the work now. All is not lost! When we talk about the active participation of the faithful in the Mass, we're not…
