As we proceed through Lent and life, we might do well to take cues from some church leaders of the past, like Pope Francis, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, and Jesus. The way of proceeding through synodality is like the Ignatian Way of Proceeding. They are both based in prayer that listens to the Holy Spirit […]
Many of us in our sixties have a diminishing interest in company policies, work regulations, and job procedures. It is true in my case. At this stage, I can increasingly profess what I have always believed: that as a priest I can be a better instrument of the Lord without being a cogwheel of the […]
Outgoing United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was recently asked if he had any advice for his successor. He responded, “Don’t get pulled into the politics.” Regardless of one’s job or position in life, it is easy to get sucked into politics. It happens in church, school, health care, law firms, union jobs, family […]
The greatest happiness a person can experience, I think, is feeling close to God. It can also be overwhelming. Perhaps your concept of God is the one power that overcomes all other powers—or a love more powerful than either life or death. Maybe your sense of the unknowable entity that we call God is relief […]
This week, after two years and 107 episodes, I suspended weekly podcast recordings of Upon this Rock. The final chapter, which you can listen to here summarizes what I and the FSC (Farnan Spirituality Center) Board hoped to accomplish by joining the webcast market. There are many “godcasts” in the web world, an existence that […]
In The Two Popes, Benedict XVI and Francis watch a World Cup soccer match between their home countries, Germany and Argentina. That is fiction. In reality, however, Francis was a big fan. In his homily one World Youth Day he proclaimed, “Jesus offers us something bigger than the World Cup! He offers us the possibility […]
As we reach the twelfth day of Christmas, it is with a little sadness. Traditionally, it marks the time to turn off holiday lights and pack away decorations giving way to a new year and a return to ordinary life. The Bible’s final Christmas story is of the Magi, the three wise men who come […]
When growing up, I had lots of cousins. There were about fifty of us on my father’s side of the family. Jimmy was five or six years older than me; I was close with his sister, Jeanne, who was more my age. He had three older brothers and, like them, was well rounded, handsome, and […]
Advent means the Coming or Arrival. Each year Christians join in a four-week, end of calendar, spiritual journey. But it is a little difficult for us to comprehend exactly what is coming, whether it comes now, or only at the journey’s end. I’ll start with the coming of light that dispels the darkness of suffering […]
This thanksgiving weekend marked a milestone in the life of Saint Therese Little Flower Parish in Kansas City: our one hundredth anniversary. The rock band, Five for Fighting, in their turn-of-the-century hit song, 100 Years, sang “I’m ninety-nine for a moment and dying for just one more moment, but I’m moving on and counting the […]
UPON THIS ROCK 