Know - Grow - Go

Fear is a part of life, and we have all entertained our own personal fears. Our fears are a matter of perspective, especially the fear of death - perhaps the greatest fear of humanity. For those of us with God in our life and faith in Jesus, we have certain hope in the plan of God for us after this life. Remember: sparrows, the simplest of birds, are not without God's divine care - so how much mor...

Sometimes, bad things happen and we entertain thoughts of God punishing us. We ascribe to God a sense of quid pro quo or wrathfulness because of a sin or a bad decision we have made, but this is the farthest thing from the truth. Christ died for us while we were still sinners, and His love for each of us is perfect, unconditional, and unending.

Jesus wants to be your strength; to enter and redeem all the hurting places in your life. There is a powerful, healing strength in the Eucharist, if our hearts are open to receive Him. The next time you attend Mass, pay attention as you approach for Communion. Remember who it is that you're receiving, and then invite Him very specifically into the broken or lonely or hurting places in your life. D...

Theologian G.K. Beale wrote about how we become like what we worship. By worshiping God, who is love, we are conformed into being the loving person God wants us to be. To love as God love forces us to examine how we deal with our relationships and the quality of our love in those relationships. Examine your conscience for where God is in your life. Based on that, reorient that which is blocking Hi...

The Bible lists nine “fruits of the Holy Spirit” (Gal 5:22-23): love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These “fruits” are the result of the presence of the Holy Spirit in one’s life. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, our behaviors change and our lives change as a result, regardless of the situations we find ourselves in. If you desire to hav...

Theologians urge caution about literally thinking of heaven as being "up," rather than an experience beyond our understanding of space and time. That said, we naturally find ourselves looking "up" when we lift our eyes toward heaven. Our calling is to strike a balance: always keeping our faith strong by looking "up" while always keeping our feet on the ground to do God's will here on earth.

We don’t all look the same way, think the same way, or vote the same way - and yet, here we are, gathered together by God’s love around this Table. All of us have someone in our life, even if we disagree with them or they make us uncomfortable, who needs encouragement, a simple hello, an invitation to go for a walk. Find that person; notice them; gather them in. Be their connection with the love o...

God wants us to be close to us, accompanying us wherever we go, through thick and thin. Jesus said he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. When we receive Holy Communion, we receive Christ - which means the Eucharist is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This is the way we follow Him who is the way.

God, our Good Shepherd, has made us for Him. He's tuned our lives to resonate to his voice. If you feel as though God is not speaking to you, your life may be out of tune. We're a bit like a radio, in that way - God is always speaking to us, but we need to set our hearts and minds - indeed, our very lives - on the right channel. 

All of us wrestle with the temptation to keep people, situations and even organizations in small, familiar boxes that we can understand, and maybe even control. And when they no longer fit in those boxes – when they change or grow or undergo conversion – it’s easy for us to not see it – or, worse, to resist it, not letting them change and grow. In doing so, we blind ourselves to the possibility th...

We all experience doubts; it's part of being human. How we handle our doubt is the key: doubts can diminish faith, but they can also be the catalyst to increase faith. But how do we move forward and have faith beyond our doubts? Fr. Bill suggests the following three things: Allow your doubt to be the catalyst for more understanding. Come to that understanding starting from a place of trust. Don't...

No matter how deep your darkness gets, no matter how deep you feel buried by your sins, Jesus loves you and wants to dig you out. Jesus’ Resurrection proves that he is more than capable to rescue you. He desires that each one of us would be with him in heaven for eternity. That is not just good news - it’s the greatest news ever.   Watch the original footage of the tree well rescue that Fr. Bill t...

Because of Jesus’ cross, because of where he’s gone on the cross, there is now no sin, no illness, no misfortune, no cruelty, no pain, no suffering – no matter how deep or dark or lonely – where God has not already gone, and now stands there watching for us, waiting to lift us up. Dear friends, we were lost – but now we are found.

A new commandment was given to us and demonstrated in the life of Jesus: we are to reorient our hearts and minds to serve and not be served. Will you encounter strange people? Yes. Will the process be messy? Yes. Will you more closely live out the commandment to love as Jesus loved? Yes.

Through Christ's suffering and death, he bound himself to us - to our own suffering. As you move through difficult times, take solace in the knowledge that God is near to you, intimately close, regardless if you can feel Him or not. It is in His Passion and Death on the cross that He can bring you through your own passion and death into eternal life - for there is no resurrection without the cross...

Sometimes, like Lazarus, the Lord leaves us in the tomb for His own mysterious reasons. Rather than just lifting us out of our darkness, God asks us to remain and delays answering our pleas because Heaven’s timeline is different from ours. In these times, there are things we can do to weather the storm: keep your eyes on the Lord, take solace in scripture, and lean on those who love you. When we'r...

By giving God the glory and thanking him in good times and in bad, we humble ourselves and recognize that are not in charge. No matter what befalls us or the sins we commit, God is always there wanting to restore our sight and inviting us to reconcile with him. And, by exposing the darkness of sin in our lives, the light in each of us becomes more visible to those around us.

Our ultimate thirst and yearning is for God, who wants to pour his love into our hearts. Lent is a time to ask what we are filling our hearts with and how we are pouring ourselves out for others. Are we filling our hearts with murky, dirt-laden water; with soft drinks that are best enjoyed sparingly; or clear, pure water that begets more life when we share it? Jesus is the source of this life-givi...

While the Sacrament of Reconciliation (a.k.a., Confession) is one of Fr. Bill's favorites, that's not the case for most people. Fr. Bill walks through some of the questions and fears surrounding this healing sacrament to explain its importance and show how we can experience a Transfiguration through it.

Lent is a time to retune the ears of our heart. That’s really the point of our fasting, prayer, and sacrifice: they’re invitations to weaken the ego with its incessant demands, to refocus our gaze back to God, and to hear Him say once more to us, “You are my beloved child. I know your heart. I know what’s best for you. I have plans for you. Come back to Me." You don’t have to have your act togethe...

Lent gives us a special time to be keenly aware of our sins and our own selfishness. Jesus' challenge in the Gospel is not to stop doing righteous deeds or prayer altogether, but to do them for the good of others and the glory of God regardless if they will be seen or not by others. As you begin your Lenten journey and practice, measure it against the standard of how it will be good for others, no...

Living the commandment to love our enemies is probably the hardest thing we can do. Simply put, we cannot do this without the supernatural grace of God. Remember that "love" is not the same as “like.” Loving someone is willing good for the other, while liking someone is a much more subjective thing. You don’t have to like everyone, but you must love them. This commandment is not a suggestion. It’s...

The vocation to marriage calls an individual to imitate God’s love by dedicating oneself to service for their spouse and to be open to the children conceived from their love. In this covenant of love, husbands and wives strive to live out the promise to love as God loves in a particular way, by giving of each other without condition. Through the highs and lows, the ecstasies and crucibles of marri...

Humility is knowing who we are as God has created us; knowing our true place in life, not more and not less. We are meant to recognize our God-given talents and tend those gifts to the best of our ability, not for the sake of ourselves but for God and others. To be ultimately motivated for our own sake is arrogance, empty, and vain. Our struggle is that we are prone to slip into the two extremes:...

In the end, the Beatitudes are really about God’s love for us, hidden in the cross; God waiting for us in the difficult places. It’s not easy to trust that, to surrender to that. If you haven't yet, pray the Surrender Novena; there's strength and courage in that prayer, a peace that the world cannot give. All of us have those hard places in our life, places that are out of control, ugly, sad, hurt...