Last week, we began looking at sin and the difference between venial and mortal sin. Even though we`ve all been cleansed from Original Sin at Baptism, we are all still wounded by Original Sin. Because of this, we still suffer the effects of Original Sin, which is why we have a tendency to sin. This tendency ...read more

The whole week between the Feast of the Epiphany and the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord we heard readings from the First Letter of St. John and on the Saturday I heard something that I had never heard before: “If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should ...read more

Last week I said that everyone gets called. But sometimes we don’t recognize it, because we’re distracted or ‘cause we’re not expecting it. But the call comes and looking at Scripture helps us recognize the Call when it comes. First you have an encounter with Christ; an encounter with the Divine; then comes a calling. And ...read more

For the last couple of weeks we’ve been talking about Vocations. We’ve looked at what it means to be called and how to discern that call. We also looked at the Church’s four Vocations: Ordained Life, Religious Life, Single Life and Married Life. Last week we concluded by seeing some of the more complex teachings ...read more

Recently I heard a talk by Julie and Greg Alexander of The Alexander House which helps parishes strengthen their marriage ministry or to help build a foundation to create one. Greg says that the turning point for their marriage when it was in crisis was a priest who asked them to consider God’s plan for ...read more

Last time, I was imagining a world without Christmas. That would mean no Christmas music and no Christmas movies.  But a world without Jesus would mean much more to our popular culture. After watching the screen adaptation of Les Miserables two years ago,  I couldn’t help but thinking that this novel would be very different had Jesus not ...read more

On January 1, the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, Pope Francis celebrated Solemn Mass in the Basilica of Saint Peter. Below, please find the complete text of the Pope’s homily for the Mass: Today we are reminded of the words of blessing which Elizabeth spoke to the Virgin Mary: “Blessed are you among ...read more

So far we’ve looked at the Vocation to the Single Life, the Vocation to the Religious Life and the Vocation to the Ordained Life part 1, part 2 and part 3. Let’s look at the other Vocation that is also a Sacrament: Marriage. The majority of people are called to married life. Remember that for Catholics, ...read more

I could not speak about the Ordained life without speaking about the two questions that most people have about the priesthood: The ordination of women and celibacy. Some people will ask why women are not qualified to be priests. The reality is that it’s not about qualifications. No one is really qualified to be a ...read more

Last week we looked at the Vocation to the Ordained Life and the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The tradition of the priesthood is not specific to Christianity and our tradition dates back to the early days of Judaism. God’s chosen people, the people of Israel, was considered a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation”, but ...read more