Aflame for Christ

There is a huge difference between a leader and a boss. Bosses look to reward themselves; leaders seek the benefit of others. Leaders set a vision which leads to the flourishing of those entrusted to their care; bosses rely on titles and honors. Jesus Christ shows us the pinnacle of leadership, and many of His saints such as St. Padre Pio are also examples of how a shepherd is called to lay down h...

The Trinity is the greatest mystery of our Faith - but that doesn't mean we don't know anything about it! How do we get a glimpse at understanding how three Persons can be in one God? Tune in for the third installment of the Dash Through the Creed series!

Much of our faith is invisible - the soul, Heaven, the power of the Sacraments. Our Catholic faith must be grounded in something more solid than what we feel and sense. Even if we don't actually experience God, we believe the testimony of those who saw the Risen Christ, who were willing to die testifying that He is alive. This gives us strength to believe them, and to believe all that the Apostles...

How do we know that God exists? There are good reasons for believing it! Tune in to hear Fr. Joseph discuss the existence of God - how do we know that He exists?

Christ invites us to approach His Heart, and the door of access to Him is His mercy. He purchased that most precious treasure at the cost of His blood, but now gives it to us freely through the Church: the Feast of Mercy, the Divine Mercy Image, and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Let us turn to His mercy now, for the door of mercy is closing quickly before the day of judgment arrives!

In our fallen nature, we are drawn to darkness. We want to love the light, but so often we are drawn back into the chaos of sin. Do we really believe that Christ wins in the end, and that He offers us a better way to live, a way that leads to authentic joy and fulfillment? We often seek happiness in dead-end things of the world; but Christ is not in the dead-end tomb any more - He lives, and invit...

Since the beginning of time, men and women have cried out to God in the midst of suffering, "Why have You done this to us? Have you abandoned us?" God's answer to these raw and honest questions is the Cross. When we gaze upon the Cross, we see the meaning and the answer to human suffering - found so profoundly in a God Who suffers with us, and Who transforms suffering, through love, into something...

Saints have been made from every walk of life, but the one common thread is that all holiness requires humility. And humility is the great theme of Holy Thursday - the humility of Our Lord in becoming a Servant of the servants, washing their feet; the humility of the Apostles, who must recognize their desperate dependence upon God; the humility of Jesus in offering His life in the Holy Eucharist....

Our world tells us that self-fulfillment is the purpose of life. "Live your dreams, pursue your own path, make the most out of it!" But Christ offers us a different, better way to live - a life lived for others, giving of oneself so that the fruit of virtues and the fruit of sanctified souls is borne in your life. Paradoxically, it is in dying to oneself that we find true joy and fulfillment - as...

Our world is a mess...but Our Lord didn't hesitate to jump into it, even to "taking on" our sin for us. But many times we prefer the mess of our sin to the clean new life Christ desires for us. During this Lenten season, we have a profound opportunity to leave the mess of our sins through repentance and Confession, and embrace the joy and peace which come from our faith in Christ as Lord of our li...

How do we best worship God? In the way in which He Himself intends! God has made it clear how to worship Him - in the Old Testament, He told His people not to make any idols or images of Him (hence, the problem with the Golden Calf) and in the New Testament, Jesus told us to "Do This in Remembrance of Me" in the Eucharist. Only when we rightly worship God will we find a rightly-ordered life filled...

All of us feel tempted to sin. Our nature is weak, and the counterfeit happiness that sin offers us certainly feels attractive! So how to we overcome the universal experience of temptation? And why does God allow us to be tempted at all, knowing that it can separate us from Him? Tune in to hear how to deal with temptation!

Memento Mori - Remember your death. Lent, and particularly Ash Wednesday, gives us the opportunity to reflect upon the shortness of life and the length of eternity. At the end of our lives, only two choices remain - an eternal triumph in Heaven, or an eternal tragedy in Hell. But Lent is a course correction, so that we may pursue Heaven more eagerly!

The average American spends over $1,700 annually on beauty products. But our demeanor and countenance has less to do with creams and makeup, and more to do with how it reflects the state of our soul. Sin disfigures us, while true beauty comes from a well-ordered soul resplendent in virtues.

A simple three-word prayer that can make you a saint: "For You, Jesus." It transforms everyday life - the joys and the sorrows, the mundane and the extraordinary - into a living sacrifice. Pray it often, and you will sanctify everything. For You, Jesus.

Jesus Christ demands allegiance over family, work, and recreation, but many people fear that to give Him rule over our life would be to become "too radical". Why does He deserve our total gift of self? Because when the Innocent One dies to pardon the guilty, He has purchased our lives with an incomprehensible cost - and we have received a benefit far outweighing anything we could imagine.

In a world where we are surrounded by a cacophony of voices from advertisers, the media, TikTok, and other people, it can be hard to hear the Voice of Christ. Yet His voice cuts through all the chaos and confusion with the clear light of Truth. How is His voice different from the messages we get from the world? And how can we best hear His voice in the mayhem of our noisy culture?

It's uncouth to show up empty-handed, as gifts can grow a relationship. The Magi knew it, and brought significant gifts to the infant Jesus. We, too, are called to give of ourselves - and in giving, we find ourselves transformed. Perhaps we have never truly encountered the Lord because we haven't given enough of ourselves to Him!

In a world that tells young couples to follow their dreams, travel, and keep their cash for themselves, it can be countercultural to be open to life. But children have always been seen as a blessing, not a burden! Parents have the great privilege of co-creating with God a new soul, which is destined for eternal life, and then raising that child to be a saint. Parents ought to rejoice in the daring...

Christmas is not about Santa or fruitcakes or Bing Crosby songs. It's truly Christ's-Mass, where He continues to offer Himself in a humble, vulnerable way as He did as a baby. Christ, the True Bread from Heaven, burned with a desire to be with us, so He took on Flesh...and then gave us His Flesh to eat. O come, let us adore Him - at every Eucharistic sacrifice!

Jesus Christ came to bring glad tidings - of what? To liberate captives - from what? To pronounce a year of favor - but what does that mean? He did not come for no purpose - hear the "mission statement" of Jesus the Messiah, and how it applies to our life this Advent!

When Christ returns, what will take place? We know from Scripture and Tradition that there will be a final judgment when all will be revealed; we know that heaven and earth will pass away and God will create it anew; and we know that our bodies will rise again. Let us look at these three elements of the world to come, with eager expectation in our hearts: Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus!

We do not know the day nor the hour, but every generation is called to be vigilant, for Christ will come again. Our generation, in particular, cries out for the final redemption of Christ - what makes our times uniquely ripe for Christ's return? Tune in as we continue to discern the "signs of the times" so we can be prepared and watchful when the Lord comes again!

God gives us tremendous graces - the gift of the Sacraments, our Catholic Faith, those daily inspirations of the Holy Spirit, and the charisms He has given us for the building-up of the Kingdom. But with such graces comes great responsibility - have we used them for holiness and for souls?

Our world is awash in knowledge - we value science, technology, education. But knowledge needs to be tempered by wisdom - the understanding of the meaning behind it all, looking at the world from the perspective of eternity. How do we grow in wisdom? What does wisdom look like? And why is knowledge so dangerous if we lack wisdom? Knowledge alone can fill us with pride, making us believe that we ar...