Anchored In The Lord

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time In the Gospel today, Jesus' apostles "anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them."  This is one of the roots of our practice of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.  When should someone get anointed?  When do you call in the priest?  Is it supposed to be during one's final hours on this earth?  Or could it be sooner?  Listen to find out more.

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time This week I moved from Medford to Superior, Wisconsin to begin my new assignment at the 5 parish cluster in and around Superior.  This homily is "some" of my story of re-conversion to our amazing Catholic faith and how I began hearing God's call to the priesthood (I say "some" because there is so much more to the story, just not enough time in one homily to cover it al...

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Our God is a God of life: He creates life and He upholds life.  "God did not make death," our first reading says...and yet death is all around us.  The reading continues, "but by the envy of the devil, death entered the world."  We believe in the supernatural - we believe in angels.  Angels are amazing immaterial creations of God!  They are smarter, stronger and more p...

Nativity of John the Baptist This weekend we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist.  John was a crucial figure, bridging the gap between the Old and New Testaments and preparing people for the coming of the Lord.  He spent most of his life in quiet preparation in the desert, and even though his role was crucial when he stepped out of the desert and into the spotlight, his time "on stage" was ver...

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time God has a way of taking something small and making it big.  We see it in the parable of the shoot from a great cedar in our first reading, in the parable of the mustard seed from our Gospel, in the Church that Jesus established which has grown across the world over 2,000 years, and even in our own growth: from a one-celled organism in your Mama's belly to the 49 trilli...

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time The first book in our Bible, the book of Genesis, begins with two different creation stories...two DIFFERENT creation stories!  What does it mean?  What do they mean? Could they have something to say about who we are, what our relationship to God is, and why there is evil, pain and suffering in the world as we know it?  Listen to hear more!

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Somethings we experience in life are beyond description - words can't reach as deep or as high as the reality.  Love is a good example.  We can use all different kinds of images and words and phrases to try and describe it, but in the end it's something indescribable with words - the experience and reality of love is deeper and truer than any words can express. ...

Pentecost The coming of the Holy Spirit CHANGED the first followers of Jesus.  We received the Holy Spirit in baptism, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus at every Mass...but how much are we CHANGED by these experiences?  Do you ever feel like you're in a spiritual rut?  Do you ever long for more in your faith but just not know why you aren't g...

Ascension Sunday Happy Mother's Day to all mothers!  This weekend we celebrate Jesus' Ascension into heaven - that after rising from the dead and appearing to His disciples for a number of days, Jesus ascends to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.  The ascension is not a one-and-done event, though.  We are the Body of Christ still present on this earth, so His ascension is still happeni...

6th Sunday of Easter Love requires both intention AND action: a good action without good intention is not love; the best intention without action is not love.    Our readings today challenge us to love if we are to remain in God.  But how can we remain in love all day long in the midst of our many different obligations and mundane duties?  The good news is that every daily, ordinary action we do c...

5th Sunday of Easter All day, every day, we are making decisions.  Ultimately, what we do and don't do, how we respond or don't respond to different people and situations, is our decision.  I believe everyone WANTS to be a good person: a good mother or father, husband or wife, family member, friend, worker and coworker...but it's our daily decisions (regardless of what we say we want to be) that d...

4th Sunday of Easter Peter says in our 1st reading today, speaking about Jesus Christ, "There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved."   If salvation is only in Jesus, then who can be saved?  Can non-Catholics go to heaven?  Can Hindus or Buddhists or Muslims go to heaven? And what part do we have to play in...

3rd Sunday of Easter When Jesus appears today to His disciples and says, "Peace be with you," they at first think it might be a ghost.  Ghosts and the supernatural are not talked about very much in our current Church culture.  What do we believe as Catholics about ghosts?  What if we or someone we know claims to have experienced a presence beyond this physical world?  Should we be afraid?  Can the...

2nd Sunday of Easter In our Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors and rather shockingly (since most of these people deserted Him during his arrest and crucifixion) He says, "Peace Be With You."  Then He shows them His wounds - His hands and His pierced side, still present even on His resurrected and glorified body.  God wants to give us a deep, abiding peace in this life.  The...

Easter Sunday And I will raise you up And I will raise you up And I will raise you up on the last day. What does God want to do for you?  How does He want to raise you up?  What does He want to do in your life right now?

Palm Sunday We are entering the holiest week of the year: we celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!  Easter can be a beautiful time filled with family and travels and preparations and celebrations (and I hope it is for you), but I encourage you, in the midst of all the preparations, to set aside some special time for the Lord.  This Holy Week, for you, will only be as "holy" a...

4th Sunday of Lent I can name plenty of ways that I would be able to grow and improve; I know plenty of  areas in my life that could use some more attention and strengthening; I am a work in progress.  And Lent is about opening myself to be changed and transformed by God, because God wants to work on me as well!  God wants to make me a better me, to make me into the person He has created me to be...

3rd Sunday of Lent Every time we say "yes" to something, we're at the same time saying "no" to lots of other things.  When we say "yes" to someone in marriage, we're saying "no" to all of the other people we could possibly spend our life with.  When we say "yes" to having kids, we're saying "no" to lots of our freedom and comfort...and sleep.  When we say "yes" to God, when we decide to enter into...

2nd Sunday of Lent In our first reading this weekend we hear the seemingly troubling story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son.  Certain situations in our lives, too, can make it seem like God is distant, cruel or mean.  Yet, in the end, this story proves God's trustworthiness and faithfulness.  Jesus believed in the Father's trustworthiness and faithfulness, even it led him to crucifi...

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time We are about to enter into the Lenten season.  Lent is an opportunity to encounter God in a new way, to pause the distractions in life and focus on those things that matter most.  As you consider what your Lenten resolutions will be, I have a few suggestions: ADD something to your days for the Lord, do something POSITIVE that will provide you with opportunities to encou...

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Paul felt an obligation to preach the Gospel...but he can't be the only one.  Every Christian, as a follower of Jesus, is called to be a light in the world, to share with others what God has done for them.  So how?  How do we share our faith in a way that is attractive but not pushy, engaging but not offensive?  I have a few ideas, and I'll share them in this homily.  T...

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Paul says in our 2nd reading: "I should like you to be free of anxieties."  That would be pretty nice...but how on earth are we supposed to do that?!  Paul's life gives us an answer.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time God speaks to us every day.  Yet, if we're not careful, we can miss the Lord's voice or mistake it for someone or something else.  The Mass is a particular hour each week when God speaks directly to us - do we know what His voice sounds like?  Or are our minds sometimes distracted by all the other things going on in our lives?  Samuel is being called by God in our first...

Epiphany Today three wise men/three kings/three magi arrive at the place where Jesus was born after following the sign of a star.  The presence of these three non-Jewish kings reveals that God is not only calling the Jewish people but ALL people of the world to believe in and follow His Son Jesus.  God's sign was a star; presumably everyone could see it.  So why is it only these three wise men who...

Feast of the Holy Family In today's readings we get some very practical advice about how to live as Christians: put the wants and needs of others before your own...as Christ did.  Paul gives us a very concrete example of how this looks in one of the most fundamental sets of relationships we find ourselves in: the family.  Before getting up-in-arms about how Paul could write, "Wives, be subordinate...