It doesn’t matter how you learned to pray, the great equalizer is the prayer of desperation, the upside-down prayer, the prayer we pray with our backs up against the wall. And for so many people, scratch the surface of this holiday season and the New Year, and you will find times of great trial as…

This again is not a question of prohibitions, but of priorities. Have your holiday spiced latte. Put dozens of giant inflatable lawn ornaments in your yard like my neighbor. Buy a bunch of gifts for yourself and your loved ones.  But make sure you don’t buy into what you are buying, don’t live your life…

Christianity is first and foremost an applied religion, and so therefore like all things on earth, there is a seasonality to our church and spiritual life.  Today we begin the season of Advent, fifty days of learning to hold loosely the things of this world and hold fast to the one thing needed.  ‘Seek first…

A man and a woman are chatting over dinner. The woman says, “John, are we ever gonna get married?” The man obviously doesn’t want to answer the question. He stutters a little and replies, “Umm, thank you.” It works! The woman is so pleased to hear these two words that she forgets all about her…

I hope all of you voted this past week, and I hope the people you voted for did not get elected. That’s right, I hope your guys and gals didn’t get elected, and I challenge you today to get to know the candidate you don’t like who got elected.  Read more about them, talk to…

In today’s reading St. Paul says something quite new and mysterious about time, that we are called to redeem time. We say lots of things about time, that you’re ahead of your time or behind the times, that you’re big time or small time, that you can save time or even kill time. But Paul…

Tuesday is all Saints day in the Western church, and like so many things in our faith life, what we understand upon hearing the word ‘saint’ has little to do with what our scriptures meant by it. Our understanding of saints is now way too big or way too small.  We make saints too big…