October 21, 2011

By Jeanne Hunt

If anyone should be nominated for the Foolish Virgins Society poster child, I’m your woman. I have run out of oil so many times, it’s not funny. It comes from convincing myself that I have more oil than I really do.

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October 21, 2011

By Father Kyle Schnippel

Liturgically, November is certainly my favorite month. Beginning with the two great celebrations of All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day and usually concluding with the start of the new liturgical year, there are many things to celebrate. We are naturally called to focus on the question during these last weeks of the church year of just where we might end up in the life to come, considering whether the pattern of our lives and the way that we have cooperated with Christ indicates if we will take the elevator up or down when called to account.

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October 21, 2011

Dear Friends in Christ,

As we enter into the month of November, we remember our loved ones who have gone home to their eternal resting place. This year, we also enter a time of immediate preparation for the reception of the Roman Missal, Third Edition.

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October 21, 2011

By Karen Kane

Over the past few years, Worship Offices all over the United States have been preparing their dioceses for the reception of the English translation of the Roman Missal, Third Edition.

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October 16, 2011

By Timothy P Schehr

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Isaiah 45:1-6; Psalm 96; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b; Matthew 22:15-21

Some Pharisees apparently thought they had a really good plan to get Jesus in trouble with the emperor of Rome. They had been irritated ever since Jesus told that parable about the vineyard, ending with the news that God would take the kingdom away from them and given it to others more capable of providing a rich harvest.

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October 12, 2011

By Sean Reynolds

God, do you ever lose sleep over your children? I do. I’ve got one who struggles for Cs in school:  what kind of future is out there for him? I’ve got another with a chemical imbalance that makes her crazy sometimes. Thank God for docs and meds. Correction, thank you. Our oldest is so bold and confident on the outside, and so fragile and sensitive on the inside. He acts like he doesn’t care what anyone thinks, but it’s all show. And our youngest, with Down Syndrome, such a joy and yet I worry what will happen to her if she outlasts us? God, it’s 3:00 a.m., and I’m staring at the ceiling and feeling really anxious and wish that sleep would come. I need you. Jesus, Spirit, Father, I need you.

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October 9, 2011

By Father Timothy P. Schehr

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Isaiah 25:6-10a; Psalm 23; Philippians 4:12-20; Matthew 22:1-14

Wedding invitations are so special they are easy to spot in a stack of mail. They are often layered with enclosures, the details prominently displayed in embossed ink on quality paper or parchment. As soon as we open them we check the date on our calendars and send in a reply. Then we start thinking what to wear and what gift to bring.

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September 26, 2011

By Father Earl Fernandes

If I had a nickel for every time someone told me they were distracted during prayer or at Mass, I would be a wealthy priest! St. Paul instructs the Thessalonians to pray unceasingly (1 Thessalonians 5:17). How difficult, seemingly impossible, that is! Maximus the Confessor claims “that Scripture commands nothing that is impossible.” Still, spiritual writers have wondered how to pray unceasingly.

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September 26, 2011

By Jeanne Hunt

In a world where Halloween is running a close second behind Christmas for most popular holiday, what I have to say is going to sound like I’m raining on the parade. It’s just that the last thing we need to do to our kids is make evil look good, and Halloween does just that: Dracula, monsters, ghosts, witches, warlocks and even Satan himself march up to our front doors, and it’s just fine with us. It’s all in fun. What’s a little spooky evil one night of the year? Children enjoy a good scare, right? The answer for those of us who worship the Light and not the dark side is an emphatic “no!”

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September 26, 2011

By Father Kyle Scnippel

Every year, the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors holds an annual convention that brings my counterparts from across the country together for formation, training (especially for new vocation directors), keynote addresses and just plain fraternization among priests. It tends to be an exciting week of activity and sharing of stories as we all compare notes of how we are doing in our home dioceses. Admittedly, we do some bragging if we are doing better than others, but always in a friendly way.

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