“No” Makes “Yes” Possible!
So, I've been doing something called "intermittent fasting" to help with the battle of the bulge! My doctor recommended I try it and it has really helped me. But, surprisingly, the biggest help hasn't been the weight loss! Don't get me wrong, I'm glad about that. No, the biggest...
The Radical Message of Jesus Christ!
It seems fashionable, especially among those who seem to preach a utopian ideology, to claim Jesus was a "radical" that would agree with "us." As someone whose lived a long life already, I can tell you I've witnessed radicals all claim Jesus was one of them. I watched as...
Where Do Your Choices Come From?
It seems the backlash against political correctness has become stronger and stronger in our society. There is even a hashtag on Twitter that says #GoWokeGoBroke! Societies are always struggling to enshrine this or that ideology as "the best way" but, inevitably, the societal pendulum swings back the other way!...
The WORK of Being In Communion
There seems to be a cottage industry that has developed in America surrounding the notion that modern life is lonely. It seems this sense of loneliness flows from the notion that we are to be "self-sufficient" and not "need" anybody to help us. We live in a society of...
The Difficult Summer Months
Dear Faith Encouraged Family, We are entering into the dreaded "summer months" for non-profits! It's the time of year when budgets are stretched thin because of a variety of factors. But I don't want to focus on what we don't have! I want to first thank you for your faithful...
The Beatitudes that Truly Heal
A dear priest friend of mine is on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and other holy sites in the area. Recently he and his fellow pilgrims came to the final resting place of Lazarus, the man the Lord raised from the dead. And that got me thinking about Lazarus...
A Dangerous Homily About God – Sunday’s Homily
On this Feast of Pentecost, we face a culture that has increased the power of shallowness and decreased the value of depth and maturity to the point where there is no sobriety, but only division and individual focus. This is absolutely opposed to how God created us. Because He...
Love Takes Work!
I’ve heard this so many times: Why can’t I find love? What’s wrong with me? The expectations of some fairy tale notions wound us and wound our children. Add to that, the utter chaos in today's society where love is reduced to mere feelings or, worse, just physical desire,...
The Timeless Wisdom of God
The famous philosopher Aldus Huxley once wrote: "If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion." Huxley wrote "The Perennial Philosophy" in 1945 and suggested that the basic wisdom of authentic human reality is common to all...
Made Able to Ask Anything
"All you gotta do is rub that lamp!" "Mr. Aladdin, sir, what will your pleasure be. Let me take your order, jot it down. You ain't never had a friend like me!" So sue me, I'm in an "Aladdin" kind of mood today! But seriously, isn't it a wonderful fantasy...