On Friday, I presided over the funeral for a man who had many friends when he was younger, but most of his family and friends had predeceased him. While there were only 11 of us in church, it felt like those who were present were just who needed to be there. Have you ever been at a funeral where there are just so many people that it feels overwhelming? On the other side of the coin, have you ever
Sermons
The biggest question that I receive as a priest is how our loving God could let bad things happen to us. The grand mystery is that a life of faith is not free of pain and suffering. Because joy, peace, and love are present too. Our problems don’t mean that we are outside of God’s love, just that we are human – still today. Even if we do all the right things, even if we clothe the naked and
As children, we are naturally curious and poke or bite everything we can get our hands on in order to learn more about the things we do not understand. But something about adulthood—its certainty, knowledge, experience, or maybe even access to Google at our fingertips—seems to stifle our curiosity. What is lost when we lose the ability to wonder? To ask questions without easy
Our culture tries to convince us that perfection is possible if we just try a little harder. We can have it all if we just master our mornings or reach that elusive inbox zero. We’ll feel better if we take that pilates class or start juicing. Our families will be happier if we read this book or go on that vacation. But what if things are not getting better… no matter how hard we
We live in a culture that tells us we are blessed when we are independent, perfectable, and have it all together. But on Ash Wednesday, we practice the opposite. Today, we proclaim that the fragile are the blessed. Humans in their very nature are dependent and imperfect with broken bodies and sometimes broken spirits. We might have made more mistakes than we care to count (or have anyone