Like a Silver Linings Playbook my experience at Saint Charles Borromeo (SCB) Parish is a blessed, life-giving, grace.  But it took several years for me to realize it.  When I arrived in 2016, leaving a parish that was twice its size and highly impactful, filled with incredibly successful, optimistic, and happy people, and a large […]

In a recent channel-surf search for mindless television entertainment, I came across The Waterboy.  You might recall some of the preposterous and comical scenes in which Adam Sandler as the Waterboy learns about life from his Mama, played by Kathy Bates.  She tries to indoctrinate him to her way of thinking: “Foosball is the devil…School […]

Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI, once said: “A healthy soul must do two things for us.  First, it must put some fire in our veins, keep us energized, vibrant, living with zest and filled with hope, as we sense that life is, ultimately, beautiful and worth living.  Second, a healthy soul must keep us fixed together.  […]

President Biden often speaks about fighting for the soul of America.  For him, our soul’s core has compassion for immigrants and other vulnerable people and respect for other nations.  Similarly, American bishops fight for the soul of Catholicism.  For them, like for most Catholics, at the core are issues of life that protect the most […]

Father William O’Malley, S. J., wrote this beautiful poem called Galumphing at God’s Heels.  Dog-lovers, especially, appreciate it. The black lab galumphs beside me as I walk, tongue lolling, eyes intent upon the stick. He’s submissive to my whistle, not my trifling talk, nor well-wrought reasons, much less rhetoric. He trots ahead and turns, impatient […]

Early in my priesthood, I knew a family whose oldest child was physically healthy, strong, well-adjusted, and popular, and whose second child was scrawny and suffered a birth defect that made his life quite different from his older brother’s.  The younger boy had five or six surgeries in his early years of life.  While the […]

While many Catholics find it embarrassing for Catholic politicians to not uphold Catholic teachings in the public forum, it is more embarrassing to see some American bishops go ballistic over who is unworthy to receive communion and wield their authority to condemn them.  Yet, in the midst of the quarrel, it is refreshing to witness […]

May 14 marks the feast of Saint Corona.  Is it any wonder that the mask order shielding us from coronavirus is lifted on her day? Her fame got resurrected last year when word spread that she, ironically, is the patron saint of pandemics.  She had a cult following among early Christians, a common practice toward […]

Recently, at an all-girls high school, I referred to a student as “she” and was quickly informed that I was not using the person’s preferred pronoun.  As society continues to unfold, some contend that the two biblical genders are not enough.  Starting with chromosome anomalies and continuing with personal preferences of the psyche and medical […]

Louie Armstrong was once asked to explain jazz.  He responded, “If you got to ask the question, you’ll never know what it is.”  The point he makes is that jazz is something that you feel, something you mysteriously know, something of which you are simply aware.  It cannot be explained.  Fortunately, one can come to […]