The Easter Vigil is my favorite liturgy on the Church calendar, so I’m disappointed we won’t be able to attend in person this year. For the past eight years, I saw friends get baptized and confirmed during the Vigil. It’s also an incredible night for me, spiritually, because I love reflecting on the readings. Instead of going through each reading one by one and saying everything I can about them…
The time between 12pm-3pm on Good Friday is a time of sacred silence. Usually, we would be able to go to a Good Friday service and receive the Eucharist, but that isn’t happening this year because of COVID-19. I wanted to put something together for myself and for my students to meditate on during this period. Christ spoke seven phrases from the Cross and it is a good thing to…
Today, I took a walk by myself. It wasn’t very quick, it was just to get the mail, but I deliberately turned off my phone and said to myself, “Self, we’re going to solve that problem we’ve been thinking about.” The problem isn’t important to the story. What’s important is that during my walk, I was able to solve that problem. I used a technique I learned in Deep Work…
A few days ago, a blogger I follow, Jon Acuff, posted “The Life Changing Power of Pants.” Jon worked from home before all this, so he shares some tips. The number one tip to working from home? Pants. For the past few weeks, a lot of us have had to work from home and we’re missing some of the usual routines that tell our brains that it’s time to be…
The word “synthesizer” has been bouncing around my head lately. My friend Daniel loves synthesizers. At least he did in high school, I’m not so sure anymore. The musical instrument is a kind of organ, named that way because when it plays a note, it “synthesizes” (brings together) harmonies, making something entirely new. What I try to do with my podcast, used to do in academic writing, and hope to…
If you’ve spent even a second as a devout Catholic, you’ve probably heard of and been instantly repulsed by the feel-good gospel. Hating the feel-good gospel is something both believers and non-believers can get behind. For me, the only thing I hate more than the feel-good gospel is the never ending witch hunt in snuffing it out. It seems like every time there’s a Steubenville or FOCUS conference, someone on…
In this past week’s readings, I was struck by the verse “salvation is closer than when we first believed.” I was taken back to the moment when I first believed in Christ. I was able to see how far I’ve come in my walk with Him and how far I have yet to go. The priest, commenting on this verse, said Advent is a time to begin an new chapter…
I’m preparing for a middle school session next Sunday that I will be out of town for. I’m handing it off to a very capable Core Team member, but I found myself looking for videos to give her to show the kids. After a few videos, I was reminded why I rarely show videos at youth group at all. Here are a few reasons why videos are usually a bad…
Last night, before I went to bed, I realized that I needed to pray. So, I went to the church. One of the perks to working for the Church is alone time in the sanctuary. The downside to that perk is being in a big dark room by yourself is kinda creepy. And so was the long, dark hallway that led to the sanctuary. Nonetheless, I braved the walk down…
You never forget the first time you hear a priest swear in the confessional. Maybe he did it because he was crabby or because he felt comfortable enough to be honest with me. Maybe it was because I was the only young man in a line of old women and he knew I could take it. Regardless, it shook me up and made me examine myself more closely. I decided…
