Eighth Sunday of the Year
3 March 2019 One Easter when I was in the seminary, I went to my good friend Mike’s house for dinner. His parents had just been divorced after 27 years of marriage. While his father would not be there his maternal grandmother would. When I first walked into the house I spotted her instantly, she commanded the room. I knew enough about Polish manners to go over instantly to her to show her respect. She nodded, but said nothing and then waved me away with her cane. I walked away and began speaking with others in the room. All the while I felt her watching me. Eventually, I sat down and...
Read MoreSeventh Sunday of the Year
24 February 2019 There are days I just feel like giving up. I suppose we all have days like that. There are days I look at the church and think, “2,000 years and we are still as petty, as mean, as incredibly self-centered, as we were when Jesus was here. Nothing has changed. We have not become the people Jesus called us to be–love your enemies, Do good to those who hate you. That seems such an impossibility. I thought about that a lot as I read through this gospel. Then I stumbled across this, A now somewhat famous prayer text left beside the body of a dead child at Ravensbruck–a...
Read MoreSixth Sunday of the Year
17 February 2019 As a transitional deacon I was assigned, for six months, to St. James Parish in Wausau. While I was there, I used to visit this elderly couple who were, I thought very poor. I’d take First Friday communion to them and always remember always feeling sorry for them. They lived in a ramshackle a three room affair–bedroom, combination kitchen/living room and bathroom. They were pleasant enough people though, easy to be with, and faith-filled especially as the man was dying of cancer. Frankly, I was quite touched by the two of them. Eventually, the man died. The day after his...
Read MoreFifth Sunday of the Year
10 February 2019 It was a gift, maybe payment for using the boat from which he preached. Jesus had seen a large school of fish not far from where they were moored– not at all uncommon in the sea of Galilee. And so he tells Peter–who had not caught anything all night, the best time for fishing during that season to lower the nets. We read this story and think, oh, what great faith Peter must have had in Jesus –to do that since he knew they wouldn’t catch anything. But there is another way to read this story. While Jesus had been preaching, Luke tells us, he had...
Read MoreFourth Sunday of the Year
3 February 2019 Jesus, it seems, was not a home town favorite.The people who watched him grow up, the people who knew him best–today decide, not only do they not want to hear any more of his preaching, they just want to get rid of him completely. Several years ago I was talking with one of our student leaders. When I hired him he warned me, “I’m not very churchy,” so I was surprised when he said: “You know I’ve been thinking, and I’d like to think if I was alive and lived in Nazareth, I would have liked Jesus and followed him.” Then he went on and said, “I know you always say that most of us...
Read MoreThird Sunday of the Year
About two years after I was ordained I was sitting alone in St. Patrick’s Church in Eau Claire. I was off to one side in the dark. Suddenly the side door from our school playground opened. Two little heads poked in and took a quick look around. It was noon recess. They didn’t see me and marched right in. I recognized them as two of our second graders. They began to speak, argue really. They had decided to play church and what better place to do it then in the real thing. They argued about who was going to be the priest. Finally, they settled on a compromise. The little boy said to the...
Read MoreChristmas & Solemnity of Mary Holy Days Mass Schedule
December 24, 2018 at 4pm December 24, 2018 at 8pm December 25, 2018 at 9am December 31, 2018 at 4pm
Read MoreTwenty Seventh Sunday of the Year Homily
TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 7 October 2018 Homily I suppose that a few people here remember and watched Princess Diana’s funeral. And, I suppose a few people remember and watched Mother Theresa’s funeral. I did and I was struck by the contrast in these two women who both captured the world stage. As one commentator said of the two: “Mother Theresa gave her life for the poor. Princess Diana, was a concerned tourist.” Princess Diana, was what most of us are really like, we are concerned about the poor, the needy. And, occasionally we do good things, but then we go on with our...
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