Where Are You? I was hired as a Director of Youth Ministry right out of college at a grouping of seven parishes merging into one. When I arrived at the parish, the youth ministries at the parishes that had them were small and fragmented. I was tasked with two things: bring these fragmented ministries together and establish a new youth ministry at the parish. My first week, I sat at…
A friend sent me an article recently that highlights two common lies about gender. Patrick Coffin is a radio show host, apologist, and one of the many reminders that staying off of Twitter is a good thing. A while back, he tweeted something along the lines of “women aren’t funny.” The tweet was obnoxious, and he’s since deleted it. But as evidenced by this article, he hasn’t exactly walked back…
A while back, I hadn’t been to confession in a month and a half. That might not seem like a long time, but I’m used to going twice a month, sometimes once a week. But for that month and a half, I neglected confession because of my experience with the priest. My Worst Confession That Saturday, I ended up at a parish far from where I lived. I knew all…
Today is Easter Sunday. When I was a kid, we would go to Mass on the beach at 5:00 in the morning and dawn would break over the horizon just as the Gospel was being read. When Christ came to Earth, He was a light shining in the darkness that the darkness had not overcome (John 1:5). When Christ rose from the dead, He became the light that shone through…
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…
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…
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…
