15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (07/13/25) Wanting to Want “All”

In this episode, we reflect on Jesus’ call to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind—a total, undivided love. We ask the honest question: Do I really love God with all, or just a lot, a majority, or maybe only some? This homily challenges us to move from partial devotion to wholehearted surrender, inviting us to desire a deeper, fuller love for God that shapes every part of our lives.

This week, we reflect on the meaning of freedom—not just as Americans celebrating Independence Day, but as Christians sent into the world. True freedom isn’t about doing whatever we want; it’s the gift of choosing love, sacrifice, and God’s will. In the Gospel, Jesus sends out seventy-two disciples two by two—not alone, but united in mission and reliant on God’s grace. Their joy comes not from their own accomplishments but from seeing what God did through them. As we cherish our country’s liberty, we’re reminded that freedom without virtue can lead us astray. Christian freedom is always “freedom for”—for holiness, justice, and love of neighbor. This episode challenges us to step out of comfort zones and use our freedom to transform the world for Christ.

Solemnity of Saints Peters and Paul

We are not on this journey of faith alone.  We turn to each other so naturally when we need help, especially to our friends and family.  The saints are our friends in heaven, our family in heaven; they are alive in Christ!  So ask for their help, their prayers, their support as fellow members of the Body of Christ.

St. Peter...pray for us.

St. Paul...pray for us.

All you holy men and women...pray for us.

Pentecost Sunday

God is doing great things here in our family of parishes!  More people are coming to Church; more young couples are attending Mass; more kids are being baptized; more families are joining the Church; more people are becoming Catholic — great things are happening here because of you and your witness!

God's Spirit is being poured out in other places as well.   God is doing great things in vocations in our diocese.  God is doing great things at St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee (where we send our graduate seminarians in final preparation for priesthood).

Ascension Sunday

We are called to follow where Christ our Savior went first.  We, like Jesus, are called to be light enough to ascend to the Father: some things weigh us down, and some things raise us up.   Do you ever feel heavy?  Do you ever feel weighed down?  Jesus wants to lighten your load.  

Ask Jesus for the grace today, ask the Holy Spirit for the power today: “Lord, give me the grace and the power to let go of one more thing I’m holding onto that’s weighing me down.  And Lord, help me with your grace and power to take one more step in an area that will raise me up!”

6th Sunday of Easter

On this Memorial Day Weekend, we give thanks to God for the lives we are able to live in our country as we remember those who have died while serving in our Armed Forces, protecting us and upholding the rights and liberties which we enjoy here and now; we remember them and we pray for eternal rest and peace for their souls. 

If I'm being totally honest, though, in my day-to-day life, I usually take these freedoms for granted.  I also take many of the blessings of life for granted...and the people God has placed in my life for granted...and the incredible gift of forgiveness of sins in Jesus and eternal life for granted...and our incredible Catholic faith for granted... So if you’re anything like me, let’s pause this week, and intentionally give thanks to God this day for all of His many gifts!

4th Sunday of Easter

Just a few days ago, on Thursday, May 8th, something happened that I never thought I would see in my lifetime: Habemus Papam! We have a Pope! …And he’s American!

Robert Francis Prevost is a native of Chicago; an Augustinian priest (a religious order priest) who spent much of his priestly life as a missionary in South America, and eventually serving as a Bishop in Peru.  More recently, he was called to Rome, where he worked in the Dicastery for Bishops.

On this Good Shepherd Sunday let’s pray for our new shepherd, Pope Leo XIV.  I also ask for your prayers for me, your local shepherd.  And finally, prayers for those that you have been called by God to shepherd. 

Jesus doesn’t say “follow me” to only popes or priests; he says it to every disciple.  Every one of us who has heard Jesus’ invitation and chosen to follow Him has also been tasked with the responsibility to shepherd specific people the Lord has placed in our care.  May we all model our shepherding after that of Christ, the Good Shepherd!

Easter Sunday

"Roll away the stone.  See the glory of God.  Roll away the stone."

What stones are still blocking the tomb of your heart?  This Easter, God wants to roll those stones away.   Christ doesn’t roll it away to shame us—He rolls it away so that He can enter in.  Just as He stepped out of the tomb into the garden of new life, bringing into our world something entirely new — so Jesus wants to step into the tombs we’ve been trapped in and say, “Peace be with you, ” bringing His light and His healing, to clear out the old, musty, life-draining, stale air, and bring in a breath of new, fresh, moving, life-giving air!

Happy Easter!

5th Sunday of Lent

“Then Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you.  Go, and from now on do not sin any more.'”

“Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!”

“forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead,”

2nd Sunday of Lent

In our Gospel today, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a mountain, and He is transfigured before them, they get a glimpse of the dazzling bright white glory of Jesus’ divinity, a foretaste of heaven and of who we are called to be! 

But our Gospel today says, “Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory!”  Jesus was already in conversation with Moses and Elijah and showing forth his tremendous glory…before Peter, James and John woke up and realized what had already been happening even as they were sleeping, “missing out on it,” as it were.  What if Peter, James and John had slept through all of it?  Would we even know about this event? 

What will it take for us to become “fully awake”?  Fully awake to the presence of God already alive, active and at work around us, within us, and through us?!