Originally Published April 10, 2009
As I sat in the fourth row back of our Church gazing at the newly painted Corpus (Christ’s Body on the Crucifix) I was enamored by the beautiful detail of Christ’s body. The Corpus is an incredible masterpiece with the detail of the muscles being as remarkable as any world-class athlete on the front page of Sports Illustrated.
I have no clue if Christ was so physically fit as he is portrayed. I do believe however that he was perfection, the beautiful form of His body on …

Holy Thursday is my favorite of all days in the Church year. I love the whole Mass, the washing of the feet, the breaking of the bread, the beloved disciple resting his head on Jesus’ chest, the betrayal – I love the whole story, the whole mystery.
Every year I reflect on some different part of the Holy Thursday traditions, some years I’ve tried my hardest to “stay awake” with Christ while he agonizes in the garden, some years I reflect on whether or not I would deny him three times, …

Thorns, burdens, and a back ache
I was talking with a friend recently whom I pray for regularly. He too is involved in ministry and impacts a lot of people. Yet he is scourged by a physical burden that he has had for some time. Whenever he has asked me to pray for him I always pray for this physical pain to leave him so that he would not be distracted. In a recent conversation I realized that perhaps it was not God’s desire for this burden to leave him. Perhaps …

When things don’t go my way I often find myself saying to God – why does this have to happen to me? Or some other despairing remark of the same sort. We often wonder why, not because we truly want to know why God has allowed something or what lesson might be learned from the present circumstance, but more out as a complaint.
It is like when a child is denied a request by a parent and they ask, “Why?”  Parents are of course frustrated when they respond with a very …

“Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he…” Joel 2:13
The number one question Catholic’s ask each other during the week of Ash Wednesday is most likely, “So what are you going to give up?” This of course is an unofficial statistic but I bet some research would back me up.
Often it seems that the problem with “what we give up” is that it is merely a matter of course. Something we do because we are supposed to – it’s tradition. To …

Here we stand at the opening of a door. (Rev. 3:20) It is Ash Wednesday, the day we begin our journey in the desert, that is if we choose to enter the door. All too often we stand at the door and merely look inside. Perhaps we step in for a moment and then step back again on the other side.
Christ beckons you and I to enter in, to join him in the desert, to allow him to transform us. We must take this journey if we are to fully …