Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (B) God created everything, but nothing created God. God simply is. There is no other God but him. The Trinity means that God is love and he is always pouring himself out in love. Made in the image and likeness of God, we are made for a community of love. We can only truly fulfill our calling if we learn to live from within the love of the Trinity. We need to draw life from within the Trinity and pour it out for others. Like two homeless brothers , you are an h...
May 27, 2024•14 min•Season 14Ep. 29
Pentecost Sunday • God wants to breathe life into us so he sends the Holy Spirit. We may not realize that when we desire true love, community, peace, and guidance, we are really desiring the Holy Spirit. We can always draw more life from God, so our prayer each day should be, "Come, Holy Spirit!" This weekend, Bishop Ricken ordained six men to the permanent deaconate . Next week, two men will be ordained to the priesthood. The Holy Spirit seems to respond to the real vocations crisis in the chur...
May 20, 2024•13 min•Season 14Ep. 28
Easter, Ascension (B) Jesus ascends into heaven. The ancients understood that he is now seated at the vantage point, from which he can see all things and direct his servants to victory. He has made our captivity his captive and has given gifts to men. These "gifts" are the prophets, Apostles, teachers and Evangelists that serve God's people and build them up. Today, I particularly want to highlight the gift of motherhood. Mothers nourish and cherish life and help it to grow big and strong. In Ch...
May 13, 2024•14 min•Season 14Ep. 27
Easter, 6th Sunday (B) Twelve of the last 14 years I have made a walking pilgrimage to Champion Shrine, the only approved Marian apparition site in Canada and the USA . This year I was hoping to join the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage for a few miles, but they are doing very few miles. I got my walking fix by completing my first ever Walk to Mary, a 22 mile hike. Is devotion to Mary idolatry? No one was bowing down to the statue of Mary. Mary walks with us on our journey of faith. Mary was the ...
May 06, 2024•15 min•Season 14Ep. 26
Easter, 5th Sunday (B) Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. We were grafted onto Jesus at our Baptism. We must remain in Him and draw much life from Jesus. The branches need pruning. The gardener must get rid of overgrowth so the energy from the vine can go to making good fruits. Fathers need to be good pruners of their family. They need so start by pruning themselves. Prune your words, your actions, and your activities, and you will bear much fruit and become Jesus' disciples. (28 Apr 202...
Apr 28, 2024•7 min•Season 14Ep. 25
Easter, 4th Sunday (B) Turkey hunting in the state of Wisconsin opened this week. A turkey hunter is pretty much the opposite of the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd knows us personally and loves us so much that he lays down his life for us. The Good Shepherd calls his sheep. The first call or "vocation" that every Christian receives is the call of Baptism. I had the privilege of Baptizing a woman in the nursing home last week. Some of the Baptized are called into religious life as monks or nuns...
Apr 22, 2024•15 min•Season 14Ep. 24
Easter, 3rd Sunday (B) "Peace be with you," says the Risen Jesus! Here are five places Jesus wants to give peace: 1) Your past. The gift of new life means we no longer have to worry about our past. 2) Our future. The Risen Jesus will meet us at the end of our time and lead us to eternal life. 3) Our sufferings. We will have the strength to endure whatever God wills, and it will be fruitful. 4) Within us. When our spirits are obedient to God, our bodies are obedient to our spirits . 5) The commun...
Apr 14, 2024•13 min•Season 14Ep. 23
Easter, 2nd (Divine Mercy) Sunday • At the resurrection of the dead on the last day, our wounds will all be healed. So why does the Risen Jesus still have wounds? He is the healer, the medicine for all of us. The seal must be broken so his life can flow into us. Jesus lives his whole life without wounds. But in his passion he experiences all our woundedness and he takes it into himself, into his very body. His body heals our wounds, but the physical wounds are a visible sign that he has carried,...
Apr 07, 2024•13 min•Season 14Ep. 22
Easter Sunday Morning • Little children need lots of help and support. As we grow up, we become more independent. We move from needing our mom and dad for everything to needing them almost never. We seem to think the spiritual world works the same way: we "grow up" from praying all the time to only calling God when we are really, really desperate. But we were never built to be independent in the spiritual world. Trying to be independent makes us feel like a little boy who wants to "do it himself...
Mar 31, 2024•15 min•Season 14Ep. 21
Good Friday of the Lord's Passion • An item is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Something that is rare, unique, or has special value might fetch more than you would imagine. What am I worth? If we let the world set our value, we will always find ourselves being cheated. Imagining bringing yourself into the Antiques Roadshow. Jesus looks you over and says, "Now this one is a special piece, a one-of-a-kind with a unique history. Yes, I would pay everything for this one, too." Jesus is ...
Mar 30, 2024•8 min•Season 14Ep. 20
Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord's Supper • We often think of the past and the future as a straight line. Jesus is seen as an historic figure. Easter is a re-enactment of Jesus' death and resurrection. We might also conceptualize Jesus as a future event, his second coming in judgement. Meanwhile, we try to follow his example of a sin-free life until our judgement day. However, it's much more accurate to think of time as a spiral, moving back over the same ground again and again but in new ways. T...
Mar 29, 2024•14 min•Season 14Ep. 19
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (B) The people of Jerusalem are rolling out the red carpet for Jesus. By laying down their cloaks, they show their willingness to lay down their lives for Christ. In the Garden of Gethsemane, a young man leaves his linen cloth behind and runs off naked into the night. How many of us willing follow Jesus when Christianity is popular, but as soon as we see the cross coming, we run away into the night? The High Priest tears his garments. The veil in the Temple is t...
Mar 24, 2024•9 min•Season 14Ep. 18
Lent, 5th Sunday (B) Being a priest in the modern world is very challenging. You need to live celibacy in a culture soaked in sex, convince Catholics to come back to Mass, teach the next generation not to abandon the faith like their parents did, save all the marriages, win the culture war, keep the buildings open, convince young men that this is a great career choice.... Did I miss anything? But what if all that is just the mission I gave myself . What if God is calling me to basically four thi...
Mar 18, 2024•12 min•Season 14Ep. 17
Lent, 3rd Sunday (B) The first three commandments are all about love of God and the last 7 are about love of neighbor. They all make perfect sense, with the exception of the third commandment. Why would God command his people to take a day off, especially people who were living hand-to-mouth? God rested on the 7th day. We, who are made in the image and likeness of God, are co-creators for six days, and then rest with the Master on the seventh. If we refuse to rest, we are saying that we have to ...
Mar 03, 2024•12 min•Season 14Ep. 16
Lent, 2nd Sunday (B) There are a number of disturbing passages in the Bible. This might be the most disturbing of all: God commands a father to sacrifice his son. In a kind of reverse psychology, he is teaching us not to engage in human sacrifice. There are people that live life with radical trust in God. They believe that God is good, and that they are his beloved children. They believe in the power of redemptive suffering and hard times make them draw closer to God. St. Josephine Bakhita is gr...
Feb 26, 2024•Season 14Ep. 15
Lent, 1st Sunday (B) Creation reveals a sacred order (hierarchy), with God at the top and human beings above the rest of creation but below God. We are part of a sacred order and we also have a sacred order within us. Man is a unity of body and soul. Except that we don't often experience ourselves as a unity. We tend to experience the body and soul at odds with each other. Our physical side needs to be ordered by our spirit towards truth and goodness and beauty. If not disciplined, your body wil...
Feb 19, 2024•15 min•Season 14Ep. 14
Ash Wednesday • Anyone can say, "I love you." How do we know if someone really loves us? Real love is when someone wants what is best for the beloved. And true love is when the lover is willing to put his beloved first. We know that Jesus is True Love because he sacrifices himself for us. If we truly love Jesus, than we will not just say, "I love you," but we also have to sacrifice for Him. Prayer, fasting, and alms-giving are all ways to say, "I love you." (14 Feb 2024) Going Deeper: How can yo...
Feb 14, 2024•10 min•Season 14Ep. 13
Ordinary Time, 6th Sunday (B) The leper must remove himself from the community in order to save the community. Jesus is the source of healing for the leper, who can go back and be a blessing to his community. We often think of sin as a private matter. But the seven deadly sins not only hurt us, but they are also toxic to community. Think of the ways that Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust both infect the host and also corrode relationships around him. Turn to Jesus. Kneel befor...
Feb 12, 2024•14 min•Season 14Ep. 12
Ordinary Time, 4th Sunday (B) The APA tells us : Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure... Anxiety is not the same as fear, but they are often used interchangeably. Anxiety is considered a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat, whereas fear is an appropriate, present-oriented, and short-lived response to a clearly identifiable and specific threat. Why is everyone so anxio...
Jan 28, 2024•21 min•Season 14Ep. 11
Ordinary Time, 2nd Sunday (B) In today's first reading, Samuel hears a call from God. Perhaps we don't want God to call and interrupt, or perhaps we are trying to discern our vocation and we wonder if God lost my number. We need to listen with our heart. Here are five ways that God commonly speaks to us. Nature. The world around me is speaking to me of God. Our own bodies also have a lot to say to us. Learn to listen to nature and your body and respect them. Church teaching marks out a safe path...
Jan 14, 2024•16 min•Season 14Ep. 10
Epiphany of the Lord (Three Kings Day) On December 29, the Holy Eucharist was stolen from the Most Blessed Sacrament Perpetual Adoration Chapel in Oshkosh, WI . Since Jesus is really present in the Eucharist, was this a theft, or a kidnapping? I recount for you the miraculous recovery of a stolen host in Cowley, Alberta. Father and the other searchers had a Eucharistic "epiphany." The magi search for the newborn King of the Jews among a people who are not excited for his birth. The can see the l...
Jan 07, 2024•15 min•Season 14Ep. 9
Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God • Today we celebrate a very controversial title of Mary. Two Patriarchs disagreed about whether it was wrong to call Mary the Mother of God. The Council of Ephesus in AD 431 settled the debate in favor of this title. We could not possibly honor Mary any more than God honored Mary. God raised this humble servant to be the Queen of the Angels. Mary shows us what God can go with us when we give him 100%. Mary will help you fully receive all that God wants to giv...
Jan 02, 2024•12 min•Season 14Ep. 8
Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (B) We each image God in our own way. But we also image God when we form a community of persons in the family. When bonds of family love are secure, we can experience a pervasive sense of peace and joy. Family members are able to thrive and develop to their full potential. This heals the core wound of fear. On the other hand, when the parents are not rooted in God's faithful love, the family experiences fear and insecurity which leads to self-pr...
Dec 31, 2023•18 min•Season 14Ep. 7
Christmas Day • God created the whole universe. Then God created us in his image and likeness. You might think that between the two, God's goodness would be abundantly obvious. But humans throughout history have believed some pretty strange things. So God decided to reveal his face in the person of Jesus Christ. The wise men present him with gifts because he himself is the most perfect gift. We continue this tradition of giving a birthday gift to Baby Jesus. The gift that he most wants is you. B...
Dec 25, 2023•14 min•Season 14Ep. 6
Advent, 4th Sunday (B) Fr. Michael's patience helped to heal my wound of abandonment. After I got healing, I was able to be patient with him, too. We were made by Love and for Love . But we didn't trust God and we started grasping for whatever we could get our hands on. God sends his Son Jesus to heal us at the very root . Jesus helps us to accept God's love for us at the very deepest level. His constant love reveals our wounds. Are you wounded by Rejection, Abandonment, Fear, Shame, Powerlessne...
Dec 24, 2023•16 min•Season 14Ep. 5
Advent, 3rd Sunday (B) If we sat down to list all the things that are wrong with the world, we would be here a while. Then we look at Christmas and it makes very little sense. How does one day with family opening presents fix any of the world's problems? The first Christmas makes even less sense: one more mouth to feed, and a homeless family. You must understand that the Bible diagnoses the fundamental problem with the world as this: creatures have lost connection with their creator . We are chi...
Dec 17, 2023•12 min•Season 14Ep. 4
Advent, 2nd Sunday (B) Watch out for fake news, and for calumny. Always check the sources! Before sharing information, ask yourself three questions: 1) Is it true? 2) Is it good? 3) Is it useful? Lies can damage relationships. Don't believe me? Ask the Hallmark Channel! Just when a couple starts to believe in the possibility of love, their relationship almost gets torpedoed by "The Misunderstanding." There would be no "happily ever after" if they didn't seek out the truth. We have become victims...
Dec 11, 2023•17 min•Season 14Ep. 3
Immaculate Conception • Mary was conceived without sin in the womb of her mother. Let us break this dogma down into two pieces. First, where did sin come from? God is a giver. When he made us in his image and likeness, he made us to be givers, too. Our first parents got tricked into taking something that didn't belong to them. They felt ashamed and they hid themselves. This is original sin. Even though we know that we were made to be givers, we all look for sneaky ways to take things that don't ...
Dec 08, 2023•10 min•Season 14Ep. 2
Advent, 1st Sunday (B) Last week I spoke about the three questions that will be on your Final Exam . If we are busy doing the things we are supposed to be doing, we have nothing to worry about. But are we really doing what Jesus told us to do? That is the question for our Advent season. We know that God is with us. The world that surrounds us is His Creation. Are you watching for the reminders of his presence? Think back to last Christmas... what were the things you really enjoyed? Did you notic...
Dec 04, 2023•11 min•Season 14Ep. 1
Christ the King of the Universe (A) It's the end of the world and we all need to pass the final exam. If you have come to church the last three weeks, you now know the test questions. Are you Wise or Foolish ? What have you done with the gifts I gave you ? How have you treated the poor? The King of Kings is seated on his glorious throne and all the nations are gathered in front of him. The king judges the people on how they treated him. When they protest that they have never seen him before, he ...
Nov 27, 2023•17 min•Season 13Ep. 54
