Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his recent book, Nine Essential Things I Have Learned About Life, passes along wisdom from his advanced place near the sunset of his human life.  He writes: “My theology is less and less about who God is or what God does, and more and more about who we are and what […]

The Pogues, an Irish band, titled one of their albums “If I Should Fall from Grace with God” while Father Richard Rohr, a Franciscan friar, titled one of his books Falling Upward.  Both—their music and his writings—are incredibly spiritual art-forms that bring listeners and readers to deeper places within the human condition and deeper places […]

In His Sermon on the Mount, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says: “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” In another version, Luke’s Gospel, in what is sometimes called The Sermon on the Plain, Jesus says: “Be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful.”  Is it any wonder that Pope Francis chose his […]

I have recently been blessed with the opportunity of providing spiritual guidance to people in a beautiful facility at Saint Charles Parish in Kansas City’s northland.  Though I have a degree in psychology and am fascinated by human behavior, through my years of priesthood my mind and heart shifted me to become more interested in […]

Approaching the thirtieth anniversary of my ordination, I find it to be an appropriate moment in time to reflect, confess, and recommit: reflect on God’s call, confess my response—and sometimes lack thereof, and recommit to what I’m doing. “Vocation” comes from the Latin “vocare” meaning to call.  In religious vernacular, it means a way of […]

In the chaos of this month from May Day to Memorial Day, Cinco de Mayo to Mother’s Day, the Kentucky Derby to the Indy 500, graduations to weddings, May crownings to First Communions, closing schools to opening pools, and classrooms to ball fields, we try to catch up with ourselves coming and going.  Some cultures […]

A year ago this week, local news media reported that Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic School would be forced to close because of financial woes.  They were referencing operational deficits, debt, dilapidated structures, a diminishing neighborhood, and an enrollment that decreased over seventy percent in less than a decade.  The demographics around this aging region between […]

There’s a story told about a guy who falls into a deep and dark hole, crying out in vain for hours that turn to days, until finally someone wanders by and hears his plea.  But instead of running for help the rescuer jumps into the hole with him.  The guy is flabbergasted and mortified at […]

“When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me speaking words of wisdom…and in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me.”  Paul McCartney’s lyrics from his 1970 hit, Let It Be, continue with a nod to the brokenhearted people who seek divine assurance that our world, […]

In The Pirates of the Caribbean, sea raiders followed “The Code of the Pirate Brethren.”  While the code was held in high esteem by buccaneers, the main characters, Captains Sparrow and Barbosa, regularly violated its rules.  When they did, they were quick to point out, “you know the code is more of what you’d call […]