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 …

“We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures, we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.” Venerable Pope John Paul II
We live in a world that measures our worth by success and failures. We live in a world of many false pretenses. We can never measure up to the expectations of these pretenses. We have these pretenses for what is success, what is happiness, what is a “good life”. They will forever fail to satisfy …

Recently I was overwhelmed by a feeling of sadness. All the difficulties of our life seemed to weigh heavily on me. Financial concerns, professional concerns, thoughts about my failures, etc. All morning I tried to do things to ignore it, but the more I did, the more overwhelmed I became. I try not to complain and not to focus on the negative. I didn’t want to talk about it with my wife because I didn’t want to bring her down. But she knew something was wrong and was growing frustrated …

“I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
In the sum total of your life there will be a simple formula by which you are remembered. It will not be the amount of fun things you did, it will not be the death-defying stunts you did, it will not be the amount of money you made, it will not be the amount of accolades you received, it will not be the nice cars you drove, it will not be the number of touchdowns you scored, …

“Often we want to be able to see into the future. We say ‘how will next year be for me?’ ‘Where will I be five or ten years from now?’ There are no answers to these questions. Mostly we have just enough light to see the next step: what we have to do in the coming hour or the following day.” – Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey

How many times have you prayed these words? “Dear God, please give me a clear answer.” or “Jesus, I’m begging you to just …

I am not as holy as I should be…
I confess. I am a sinner. I have failed in so many ways. I’m not even “living gracefully” as I should – since that is what this whole site is about. I have many struggles and though I have a goal of sainthood for myself and my whole family and I have much ground to gain… My weakness, my pride, my anger, my fear, my doubt, my laziness all get the best of me more often then my virtue overcomes. I’m sure …

Do not be afraid of going to God with your need, do not grow anxious about your needs or your life. Do not despair at trial or tragedy. Rather take it all to God who, in his perfect will, can answer all of our needs, our worries, our fears. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7)