21Mar21 (21bL5). Exterior laws are difficult. But when we trust God and seek to make his law written on our heart it makes it a little easier. Suffering is sometimes the means of obedience.

07Feb21 (21bO5).  People can sometimes accuse Christianity as escapism and hoping in the best. Job does not escape his suffering by turning to God but acknowledges reality of struggle, we should too. The modern heresy of Prosperity Gospel sometimes promotes this idea that if we have faith we will prosper in the world. If we are experiencing difficulty, we must not have faith. In reality Christianity is a religion of God suffering with us. We need to not explain away suffering but sit with our friends like God does with us.

31Dec20 (20MaryMotherOfGod). Jesus is fully God and fully human. Mary is mother of one person. Jesus Christ who is able to save us because he is one of us and has the ability because he is God. A simple, but super complicated belief. Interesting history.

27Dec20 (20HolyFamily). Families are filled with sinners, us. What can we learn from the Holy Family? Even though they were without sin, they still experienced great difficulty and suffering. Jesus grows and learns in the midst of obedience in His family. We also learn and grow as well.

24Dec20 (20Eve). Christmas is so exciting!! Maybe more as a kid when you got gifts and didn’t have to worry about giving the right gifts. A lot of time Christmas is lost in all the celebrations of Christmas during Advent. Hopefully we can be reminded of the amazingness of Christmas not because of gifts, but because of the great gift of God’s presence as a child and the present gift of the Eucharist.

20Dec20 (20bA4). How can God love all people and there be Hell? Free-will is a greater good than the absence of Hell.

We are links in the chain. If we want our community and chain to be stronger, we need to help each link. We are all prophets in our baptism and have an obligation to help turn people from wickedness toward God. 9/6/20

“It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world, but for Wales…” (St. Thomas More in a Man for All Seasons)(correction it was Richard not Roger). Are we losing our life or gaining it. In a lot of the ways that we think will gain our life loses it, but in ways we feel like we are losing it we actually find it. This is true naturally and even more spiritually. Don’t hold on to our gifts, God wants to give more. Let us open our hands and let our life go in order to find it. 8/30/20

I share my story to let you know that God works. We would love to have huge spiritual experiences every day, but that is not often how it works. Peter spends a lot of ordinary time with Jesus to be able to confess who Jesus with his lips and ultimately with his life. The most important growth in spiritual experiences doesn’t come from random experiences but persevering in relationship with Jesus. 8/23/20

We are not blessed for our sake alone. Just as Israel was chosen so salvation could be brought to the whole world so we are chosen, blessed, and saved so that we can bring those things to others. 8/16/20