Homilies

June 19 2022

Entering St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, your eye goes immediately to the main altar beneath the bronze canopy. Beyond that is the Altar of the Chair where on the back wall a chair belonging to St. Peter is…

June 12 2022

I am grateful for the gift of a good education. The other day, I counted the number of theology courses I’ve had in my life. They add up to exactly one million. Sadly, I only remember seven or…

May 29 2022

After she was sexually abused at the age of seven, the poet Maya Angelou was unable to speak for nearly ten years. Out of that devastation and silence, she rose to become a person of rare eloquence. What accounts for…

May 24 2022

Where are you going?” “How long will you be gone?” “Who will take care of us?” Like kids watching Mom head out the door, the disciples look to Jesus as he leaves and wonder, “What will happen to us after…

May 8, 2022

I saw a t-shirt recently. “I met God,” it said. “She’s black.” Why does that grab our attention? We know that God is neither male nor female, with no skin color: God has no skin. But, at the same time,…

May 1, 2022

Some questions make me squirm, like, “How’s that diet going?” or “Are you saved?” Or, “Do you love me?” Jesus poses that awkward one to Peter not once, but three times—not because of insecurity on Jesus’ part, but to offer…

April 24 2022

The novel, The Illumination, by Kevin Brockmeier, tells of a miraculous happening at 8:17 one Friday night, when life as we know it is altered by one degree: all human pain begins to manifest itself as light. From a shaving…

Easter 2022

Our Ascension School Fifth Graders presented a dramatic presentation of the Stations of the Cross on Thursday. One scholar, portraying a soldier, told me that he had to hold onto Jesus’ arm throughout the story. He said Jesus was a…

Good Friday 2022

Calvary,” a poem by Marie Howe: Someone hanging clothes on a line between buildings, someone shaking out a rug from an open window might have heard hammering, one or two blocks away and thought little or nothing…

Holy Thursday 2022

When I was growing up, my favorite spot in the living room every evening during TV time was next to my mother in her big aquamarine upholstered rocking chair. I’d snuggle in, her right arm around me, my head in…

April 10 2022 Palm Sunday

Richard Rohr writes, “Trust the down, and God will take care of the up.” We hear today in the letter to the Philippians an ancient Christian hymn that sings of Jesus’ descent from his high and mighty throne: being born…

April 3, 2022

On Thursday, members of Canada’s Assembly of First Nations gave Pope Francis a “cradleboard,” a traditional baby carrier, and asked him to keep it overnight as he reflected on what happened to Indigenous children who were sent to Catholic residential schools, especially…

March 27, 2022

The beginning of the film, The Child in Time, has Stephen Lewis, a young father (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), on a routine visit to the grocery store with his four-year-old daughter, Kate. Riding in the shopping cart, she urges him…

March 20 2022

Some of you may be too young to remember, but in the olden days, you didn’t automatically get R, S, T, L, N, and E in the “Wheel of Fortune” Bonus Round. You had to ask for them. And everyone…

March 6 2022

For how many years of Ash Wednesdays have Catholics in Ukraine gone to church and had a cross of ashes imposed on their foreheads? How many Lenten pews did George Floyd or DeShaun Hill’s mother sit in and hear about…

February 13, 2022

My mother suffered the death of her first-born son, Georgie, when he was 13 months old. He died in a car accident while sitting on her lap. She grieved for the rest of her 50-some years. In 1948, there were…

February 6, 2022

My dog, Chucho, and I were at Ascension School on Wednesday to judge the Catholic Schools Week door decorating contest. At one point, a first grader in the hallway came over and petted Chucho, and then scampered back to his…

January 30, 2022

When St. Paul penned his lyrical ode to love, he didn’t have starry-eyed brides and grooms in mind nor an impending Valentine’s Day. It was written for a very messy church community in Corinth, with their feuding, factions, and finger-pointing.

January 23, 2022

The ancient Greeks had a word for someone who was solitary and isolated:“idios”—suggesting that one who didn’t participate in community life, who tried to make it on their own, who didn’t contribute to the common good, was an “idiot.” Likewise,…

January 16, 2022

What does Miss Manners instruct one to do if one were to run out of wine at one’s wedding? She doesn’t answer that question. She says it must simply never ever happen. So it was in Jesus’ time. Wine is…

January 9, 2022

In a New York Times opinion piece, Frank Bruni writes that “recrimination, rancor and indecency” characterize American life and discourse these days. Our communal spirit is close to broken. “We’re a mess,” he says. St. Óscar Romero asks, What…

January 2, 2022

Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor begins her sermon for the feast of the Epiphany saying, Once upon a time there are three—yes, three, very wise scholars of the natural sciences…They are sitting around in their own countries minding their own business when a bright…

December 26, 2021

In 1984, my dad, brother and I traveled to Slovakia in search of our roots. After days of investigation in and around the place where my father spent his first twelve years, we were taken to a small stone cottage…

Christmas, December 25, 2021

Tuesday’s Washington Post had an opinion piece by Alexandra Petri with the headline, “Carpenter and his fiancée hesitant to bring child into troubled world.” “They did sit down in that place that is called Couch, and lo, they began to…

December 19, 2021

“Christmas is about finding life where you don’t expect to find life.” Unexpected life in Elizabeth, of all people: they called her “sterile” and “barren.” Unexpected life in Bethlehem, of all places: hidden away in Palestine. Unexpected, astonishing life in…

December 12, 2021

I am a male with white skin, born in the USA. As a result, I’ve rarely been excluded, displaced, or dismissed—other than being picked last for everything in gym class and a suffering a few bouts of unrequited love. You…

December 5, 2021 | 5 de diciembre de 2021

So, what do you want for Christmas? I remember the childhood thrill of getting that one thing I desperately wanted, that I had begged for, that I’d obsessed over for weeks: my turquoise Tonka Toy camper, my View-Master projector, my…

28 de noviembre de 2021

Con el tiempo, he tenido dos perros, dos pugs como compañeros: Max, un tipo dulce, sensible y de cara triste que vivió durante 15 años; y Chucho, un tipo dulce, sensible y de cara triste que ahora tiene cinco años.

November 28, 2021

Over time, I’ve had two dogs, two pugs as companions: Max, a sweet, sensitive, sad-faced guy who lived for 15 years; and Chucho, a sweet, sensitive, sad-faced guy who is now five years old. While they bear a strong resemblance…

November 21, 2021

I was in El Salvador two years ago at this time and marked, on November 16, the 1989 slaying of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter, at the University of Central America in San Salvador. The priests were…

Nov. 14, 2021

November’s commemoration of the dead became personal for me a couple of weeks ago when a friend of mine died, Dr. Bruce Adams. Dr. Adams spent most of his career at North Memorial, in emergency medicine and as Vice President…

October 10 2021

I returned last week from an eight-day retreat in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The essence of the experience was a freeze-frame of today’s gospel: Jesus looking at me, loving me, earnestly, tenderly asking me to be his. Like the young man in…

October 3, 2021

So what do I know about marriage? I know it’s not for wimps. Jesus knew, that in the accepted patriarchy of his day, a man could desert his wife and children at will. That had devastating consequences. With no social…

September 19, 2021

I came across the photo again on Friday. You may remember it from a couple of years ago. A Salvadoran father and child, Óscar Martínez and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria, had attempted to cross…

September 12, 2021

In a recent newsletter from Dignity USA, an association of LGBYQ Catholics, Jeff Vomund writes: There is that moment–always–when talking to someone on the street or a new associate or an unfamiliar colleague at work. They ask something…

September 5, 2021

An “impediment” is, literally, something that gets in the way of our feet—our “pedi,” in Latin (pedal, pedestrian, pedicure). Jesus poked, spat, and groaned to heal the man with hearing and speech impediments. Back…

August 29, 2021

A few years ago, a study exploring why young Christians leave the Church titled, You Lost Me, found that, while most young adults want and seek spiritual sustenance, they find that …faith communities convey a lot of information about God…

August 22, 2021

From Irish poet, W.B. Yeats. Though you are in your shining days, Voices among the crowd And new friends busy with your praise, Be not unkind or proud, But think about old friends the most:…

August 8 2021

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas writes, If Christianity [makes] any sense, it must be because of something to do with eating that meal. At times of stress or sadness or self-pity, I turn to food for comfort. Reese’s Pieces. But I…

July 25, 2021

My friend, Mike, relies on his feet and amazing toes to accomplish a thousand tasks every day. He has very short arms, and elbows that are locked. He has two fingers on one hand and just one on…

July 18, 2021

Too much information, perhaps, but lately I’ve been having some gastrointestinal issues. I can’t down a bedtime pint of Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter like I used to. As I get older, it’s harder to stomach a lot of…

July 11, 2021

Many made the best of the pandemic quarantine to declutter their homes. I didn’t manage that, but I did clean up my computer and deleted a lot of useless material. As one does in going through piles of…

July 4, 2021

I bristle when leaders, especially Church leaders like me, priests, pastors and bishops, look down on others and call out their sins with a breathtaking lack of self-awareness of their own faults and failures, their neediness and insecurities. Imagine if…

June 27

When valedictorian Bryce Dershem stepped to the lectern at his Voorhees, New Jersey high school graduation last week, he wanted to share how his battle with mental health was even more difficult in a senior year marred by a pandemic.

June 20, 2021

On Friday, we celebrated the funeral of our good Visitation friend, Sister Mary Virginia. At the wake the night before, people were invited to share stories about Sister Virginia. As remarkable as the testimonies was the array of…

June 13, 2021

I have two votive candles in my bathroom. One has the familiar Serenity Prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the…

June 6, 2021

I drove to Mankato Friday for conversation and inspiration with Sister Alice, my now 95-year-old first grade teacher, a School Sister of Notre Dame. I was one of 52 in our St. Philip’s classroom. One of the things…

May 30, 2021

I had been getting some clarity this week around Trinity Sunday when it was all undone. On Thursday we learned that a second child in our neighborhood died from gunfire, a nine-year- old. She was struck while playing…

May 23, 2021

I was sitting at my desk Wednesday afternoon when a staff colleague texted me with the news that six-year-old Aniya Allen had died from the head injury she received when she was struck with gunfire on 35…

May 9

In selecting readings for a funeral this week, the daughter of the deceased suggested St. Paul’s famed, “Love is patient, love is kind” passage, but wondered if it might sound out of place as we’re accustomed to hearing it at…

May 2, 2021

The Untethered Soul. That’s the title of a 2007 self-help bestseller by Michael Singer. Singer discusses what he calls our “inner roommate”: that voice in us that never shuts up, the voice of distraction and worry,…

April 18, 2021

Most white people learn at an early age, directly or indirectly, that someone with black or brown skin is suspect: suspicious of something, guilty of something. That learning goes on to infect and infest all the institutions that…

April 25, 2021

On Wednesday morning, the day after the Chauvin verdict, I visited George Floyd Square. The square was filled with hundreds if not thousands of flowers, colorful and bright. The spot where Mr. Floyd died has become a shrine…

Easter (April 4)

“Life is difficult.” So begins Scott Peck’s 1978 bestseller, The Road Less Traveled. Doesn’t sound very Easter-y, does it? But try to dress it up as we might, our own times have been especially difficult. There’s the pandemic, of course,…

March 28, 2021

March 21, 2021

The ancients used to wrap their newly dead the same way they wrapped their newly born: with strips of linen cloth, in swaddling clothes, as it were. Bound in that way, it would have been difficult for Lazarus…

March 14, 2021

“Here’s mud in your eye.” Jesus may have been the first to offer that toast to another’s health as he was literally putting mud in someone’s eye. Why mud? Could have been all that healing sulfur, zinc, magnesium…

March 7, 2021

Walker Percy writes: There are few joys greater than drinking cool water after a serious thirst. They both had a serious thirst that led them down to the well that day. At the beginning,…

Feb. 28, 2021

Father Greg Boyle tells the story of Louie, a former gang member. Louie has three daughters. He wasn’t present as his first two girls were born as he was deep into a meth addiction and in and out…

Feb. 21, 2021

Father Greg Boyle, the Los Angeles Jesuit who founded Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang intervention and reentry program, tells the story of his 92-year-old-mother on her deathbed. In and out of consciousness, when she would open her eyes and…

Feb. 14, 2021

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch says to his daughter, If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things…

Feb. 7, 2021

In the news this week was a nursing home in Paynesville that has constructed “visitation stations” to help residents connect with their loved ones during the COVID lockdown. The stations have a window, an audio system, and handsome wood paneling.

Jan. 31, 2021

I recently came across the term, “Prophet of Compassion.” Following the Google trail, I found myself reading about the prophet Muhammad, whom Islam calls “a mercy for all creatures.” There are innumerable references to compassion and mercy in the Koran:…

Jan. 24, 2021

Creatio ex nihilo—creation out of nothing—is how God started this whole thing. I’m always impressed with those artisans and crafts people, artists and writers who are able to put virtually nothing together and make something beautiful or useful. That’s what…

Jan. 17, 2021

Today we mark a change of liturgical season to so-called Ordinary Time. However, for the Episcopal and Lutheran Churches and Eastern Rites among others, Epiphany continues: a time of ongoing discovery of the Incarnation, its ripening. This year, of course,…

Baptism of the Lord (Jan. 10, 2021)

Liturgical theologian, Benedictine Aidan Kavanagh, notes the “gruff robustness” of the first rubric for the fourth-century rite of Baptism. The bishop enters the vestibule of the baptistery and addresses the catechumens with four words: “Take off your clothes.” Kavanagh goes…

Epiphany of the Lord (Jan. 3, 2021)

The story is told of a little girl and her mother who stopped to look at the Nativity scene at their church. The mother explained that the Three Kings were presenting their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The little…

Feast of the Holy Family Dec. 27, 2020

There were eight of us in the church for Christmas Eve Masses (not counting Jesus, the Holy Family, and the shepherds). My dinner table was set for one. I told a friend I was spending Christmas at home: “the hermitage.”…

Christmas Dec. 25, 2020

According to Jon Mendelsohn, the medical director of Advanced Cosmetic Surgery and Laser Center in Cincinnati, injectable procedures such as Botox are up 90% compared with the same period last year, doubling his days in the operating room and extending…

December 20, 2020

A recent innovation to help fathers-to-be understand what their wife or partner is in for when giving birth to a child, is a “labor pain simulator.” Pads carrying electric shock are placed above the abdomen, simulating the contractions and pain…

Our Lady of Guadalupe Dec. 12, 2020

On my trip to El Salvador one year ago, I met men and women who had survived the civil war of the 1980’s, having undergone unspeakable brutality at the hands of the Salvadoran government. Some of them had known Archbishop…

December 13, 2020

Extreme inequality in income and resources between the haves and have-nots. Wealthy elites fiercely guarding their stashes. Imperial powers throwing around their weight. No redress for the poor and working classes. A complacent, if not complicit, religious establishment. Is this…

December 6, 2020

We know the story of Aladdin, the middle eastern folk tale about a young boy, a magic lamp, a genie and three wishes. We’ve all wondered, “If I had three wishes…” The Lord’s wish: “Comfort, give comfort to my people.”…

November 29, 2020

Watch. Stay awake. Stay woke. For African Americans, to “stay woke” originally meant to have heightened alertness to police brutality and systematized racism and violence against Black persons. And not only that, but it implied being active, being activists. More…

November 22, 2020

At its Greek root, the word for the deadly sin of “acedia,” means, “lack of care”—that is, to not give a damn. Acedia is evident, one preacher says, in …The ability to look at a starving child…with a swollen stomach…

November 15, 2020

Of all the thousands of words that were spoken to me on the day I was ordained a priest over 37 years ago now, I return most often to these, when Archbishop Roach handed me a plate and a cup.

November 8, 2020

I hate to wait. I hate waiting for the pizza guy. I hate lines at Target. I hate waiting for Mass or a movie to start. I can’t wait more than a second or two for a test result. Or…

November 2, 2020 (All Souls Day)

You would have liked my mom. She was at the same time a tenderhearted but tough bird: hardworking, straight talking, unpretentious and tenacious, uncommonly generous. She had a wry wit, worn, dishpan hands, and great legs. She loved people by…

November 1, 2020 (All Saints Day)

I was talking with a young couple a few weeks ago about the scriptures for their upcoming wedding. They chose the Beatitudes. The bride said, “The Beatitudes are beautiful.” And they are. Poetry. Even the word “Beatitude” is a beautiful…

October 25, 2020

When couples come to talk about their upcoming marriage, the clergy often think it’s interesting to ask if they love one another. “What a stupid question!” theologian Stanley Hauerwas says. “How would they know? A Christian marriage isn’t about whether…

October 19, 2020

God and Caesar, church and state, the reign of God and civil society: complex relationships. Jesus recognizes the necessity of contributing to the welfare of the state and acknowledges legitimate civil authority. But he frequently addresses how that authority—both civil…

October 4, 2020

In these trying times, what we would hope for here is a gentle, encouraging gospel message. Unfortunately, what we’re stuck with today is a tale of greed, violence, and murder. The landowner entrusted all he had into the hands of…

September 27, 2020

At a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol for Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg Friday, the presiding rabbi quoted Deuteronomy 16:20: “Justice, justice you must pursue.” It was a quote that hung in Judge Ginsburg’s chambers. Because the rabbinic tradition assigns meaning…

September 20, 2020

This could be one of the most “un-American” of all parables: an account of equal pay for unequal work. Like giving every student an A, or every team a trophy, it just doesn’t sit right. Our uneasiness demonstrates why the…

September 13, 2020

Nigerian writer, Chamamanda Ngozi Adichie, speaks of “The Danger of a Single Story.” As I listened to a presentation of hers, I was both captivated and heartsick. She reminded me that, as impressionable young children, some of us heard and…

September 6, 2020

“We must speak to them with our hands before we speak to them with our lips.” Those are the words of St. Peter Claver, a 17th-century Jesuit whose feast is Wednesday: a day of fasting and prayer for racial healing.

August 30, 2020

A priest and a rabbi are at a prizefight. A Jewish boxer gets into the ring, flexes his muscles, jumps up and down, and goes into his corner. Then a Catholic guy gets into the ring. He flexes his muscles,…

August 23, 2020

A question about questions: How many of them, questions, that is, does Jesus ask in the gospels? A lot more than you think: 307. He has some doozies. “What do you want me to do for you?” “Do you love…

August 16, 2020

Early in life we’re told that sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt us. One of the biggest lies of our childhood. Being a chubby kid, I was brought to tears with hurtful words and,…

August 9, 2020

A teacher writes, “Everything you’ve ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear.” What in our life has been undone by fear? Today’s eternal lesson is that although Jesus cannot eliminate life’s violent winds and waves, he’s there,…

August 2, 2020

When the jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt was 18, his left hand was badly burned in a fire. His third and fourth fingers were paralyzed, making it impossible for him to play the guitar as he had. But soon he discovered…

July 27, 2020

Saturday after Saturday these days, we’re celebrating the sacraments of initiation here at Ascension: Baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation of children and youth and adults. It’s heartening to have others—many others—join the Church. And no matter their age, our message…

July 19, 2020

The landscapes of our earthly kingdoms—Washington, Rome, North Minneapolis, our homes—are invariably fields of weeds among wheat. Good progresses, yet evil does, too. Our discouragement with the current landscape—all those weeds—may lead us, in the words of today’s first reading,…

July 5, 2020

On the front page of Thursday’s StarTribune was the photo of a neighborhood kid, 10-year-old Darius Miller, in his football uniform and helmet. The caption above quoted him: “I was afraid to get shot.” The article told the story of…

June 28, 2020

A so-called woman of influence welcomed the prophet, Elisha. She provided him a little room on the roof: a bed, table, chair, and lamp. Receiving the prophet, who most often are hard to take, she received a prophet’s reward: she…

June 21, 2020

In his poem, “Whatif,” Shel Silverstein writes, Last night, while I lay thinking here, Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear And pranced and partied all night long And sang their same old Whatif song:… Whatif I…

June 14, 2020

When I was seven years old, I said Mass in my bedroom every day. I had all the stuff: altar, vestments, candles, crackers, and Kool-Aid. But I didn’t have any people. It was a solitary affair, just me. I’d extend…

June 7, 2020

A little girl was busily drawing, using all of her crayons, and all her concentration, when her teacher asked just what it was she was drawing. “It’s a picture of God,” she said. “Oh, honey,” the teacher said, “Nobody knows…

May 31, 2020

I wouldn’t have believed it. I wouldn’t have believed that a police officer would pin a man to the ground with a knee to the neck while the man begged to breathe, to live. I wouldn’t have believed that it…

Sunday, May 25

In her book, Wouldn’t Take Nothin’ for My Journey Now, the poet Maya Angelou recalls her grandmother, who raised her in the little town of Stamps, Arkansas. She describes her as “a tall cinnamon-colored woman with a deep, soft voice,” whose…

May 17, 2020

Oprah said it: There will be no pomp because of the circumstances. Due to COVID-19, the Class of 2020, college and high school graduates, and our own Ascension School and Academy eighth graders, are foregoing the ritual of a traditional…

May 3, 2020

So, do you watch Channel 4 or 5 or 11? Fox News or CNN? Who do you listen to, the President or the Pope? Of all the voices we’re hearing these days, there’s one voice we recognize among all others:…

April 26, 2020

“We had hoped.” A sad three words. We had hoped. We had hoped for a cure. We had hoped he’d be hired. We had hoped she’d come back. We had so hoped. The disciples on the road today are not…

April 19, 2020

I. I am so glad I have Chucho these days: my dog. I’m grateful that there’s one living being in the world from whom I don’t have to socially distance. He’s become much more of a lapdog recently, seemingly enjoying…

Easter Sunday, April 11, 2020

As I sat in the sanctuary a couple of days ago with my small band of Triduum prayer mates, I could see through the open door of the church. I saw snow blowing by, and thought, “This doesn’t look…

Good Friday, April 10, 2020

Meet you at the cross. One of the most moving elements of this, the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion, is the Veneration of the Cross: a solemn procession when each of us approaches the cross to touch it,…

Holy Thursday, April 9, 2020

Almost ten years ago, I visited Poland with a group of pilgrims. We visited the town of Oświęcim, more commonly known by its German name, Auschwitz. Among the things we saw in the extermination camp were Jewish and…

Sunday, April 5, 2020

It’s called “The Problem of Evil.” In philosophy and theology, it’s the dilemma of how to reconcile the existence of a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all loving, with the existence of evil in the world. How can a…

Sunday, March 29, 2020

In the 1964 film, Zorba the Greek, the young English writer (played by Alan Bates) asks Anthony Quinn’s Zorba, “Are you married?” Zorba replies, “I’m a man, so I’m married. Wife, children, house, everything…the full catastrophe!” It’s not a complaint.

Sunday, March 22, 2020

In his remarkable, radiant memoir, The Planet of the Blind, Stephen Kuusisto chronicles a life of “trying to pass,” as he says, as a sighted person. Trained as a child to disavow his blindness, Kuusisto spent his life pretending to…

March 15, 2020

“He is,” we hear in the TV commercial for Dos Equis beer, “the most interesting man in the world.” “If he were to pat you on the back, you would list it on your résumé…During his school years, his…

March 8, 2020

A priest friend of mine just returned from an eight-day silent retreat. “Really powerful,” he said, adding that he had gotten (quote) “recalibrated” with Jesus. I’m totally jealous. For the past few weeks, I feel as if all of…

March 1, 2020

Almost as troubling as the question, “How much do you weigh?” is, “So, what are you giving up for Lent this year?” It is, after all, a deeply personal decision. So, I Googled it. The first website produced “102 Things…

February 9, 2020

I. Politics. The term comes from the Greek words for “city” and “citizen.” Despite rich Catholic social teaching, we Catholics sometimes think we’re supposed to avoid politics. But the U.S. Bishops write, Our nation’s tradition of pluralism is enhanced,…

Christmas 2019

I. Nearly thirty years ago now, it was a moment that redirected the course of my life. In 1991, I was hospitalized for depression. The stigma that surrounds mental health issues today was even greater then, and I found the…

December 22, 2019

I. A few years ago, some Kindergarteners shared with me their take on the story of Jesus’ birth. Maggie wrote, The angel came to Joseph and said, “You will be Mary’s husband.” He was scared at first because he…

December 15, 2019

I. “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Here’s an Advent story: The abbot was greatly distraught at the decline of the monastery. He had prayed and pondered over the situation, and admonished…

December 1, 2019

I. Among the most evocative of the sacred sites I visited in El Salvador was St. Óscar Romero’s residence at the Divine Providence Hospital – the “Hospitalito,” the “Little Hospital” – where he lived with a community of Carmelite Sisters.

November 24, 2019

I. I spent two weeks in El Salvador. It will take a long time – a lifetime, perhaps – to absorb all that I experienced in this land of intense suffering. I was worn down by the stories of assassinations,…

October 27, 2019

I. Last weekend began with our regular Friday morning Mass at the Visitation Monastery. Later, at 1:00, we had a quinceañera and a baptism. On Saturday morning, we celebrated four baptisms, and in the afternoon the wedding of one…

October 20, 2019

I. At a gathering some years ago, a woman, clearly distraught, approached now-deceased Archbishop Harry Flynn. Someone who witnessed the encounter said that the woman began to tell the archbishop the story of an abortion she had had a few…

October 13, 2019

I. Growing up, I was a good boy. I was Mommy’s boy, and Grandma’s boy. I was straight-A smart, every teacher’s pet, chief of the Junior Fire League in fifth grade and captain of the School Safety Patrol in sixth.

October 6 2019

I. Habakkuk, the exasperated prophet, roars today, How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not intervene. Why do…

September 22, 2019

I. I find myself pulling out this quote and sharing it with you about once a year. It seems timely again. From Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period was…

September 15, 2019

I. In São Paulo, Brazil, a minister who worked with children living on the street introduced them to Bible stories and helped them to reflect on them. One day she told them today’s story of the prodigal son. She stopped…

September 8, 2019

I. The Italian language (like Italians themselves) is expressive and florid. But it can also be precise, even blunt. When, for example, Italians are posed a question, they may respond so lyrically that the listener is overcome by the sheer…

Sept. 1, 2019

I. Social convention dictates who sits where and with whom at dinner parties. The table is a miniature model for rules of association. Of course, we like to sit with people we know – our own kind. Jesus’ table arrangements…

August 25, 2019

I. For most of his life, St. Óscar Romero, the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador was a respectable, hard-working, church-going man. Everything changed on March 12, 1977, when his friend, Father Rutilio Grande was assassinated by rich landowners for his…

August 18, 2019

I. When Antonio Basco’s wife, Margie, was killed in the El Paso shooting two weeks ago, he lost his only relative. Worried that he might have to bury her alone, Mr. Basco asked the funeral home to invite the public…

August 11, 2019

In order to discern the direction of his future ministry, a priest went to work at Mother Teresa’s home for the dying in Calcutta. When Mother greeted him, she asked, “What can I do for you?” He asked…

July 28, 2019

I. A couple of days ago I spoke with a young woman who lived for two gut-wrenching years at a Christian mission in Bangladesh. She prayed all the time, with all her heart, for the children: that they be freed…

July 21, 2019

I. When it came to feeding people, my Polish mother followed the dictum, “Whatever’s worth doing, is worth overdoing.” Abraham and Sarah may have been Polish. In today’s first reading, Abraham says to his guests, “Let me bring you a…

July 14, 2019

I. It’s a nice story with a nice moral. Typically, a “Good Samaritan” is the guy who stops to help someone whose car has broken down. Or the one who shovels snow for their elderly neighbor. It’s good to be…

July 7, 2019

I. “Do I have to draw you a picture?” These days, if you’re putting together a piece of furniture, technology, or toy, the assembly instructions are not given in words, but pictures. Usually, I find the drawings entirely clear. Sometimes,…

June 30, 2019

I. The Fourth of July celebrates, of course, the independence and freedom on which this country was founded. Our First Amendment rights guarantee freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, and the freedom to…

June 23, 2019

I. On Thursday’s drive home from the Priests’ Assembly in Rochester, I took a detour through Mankato, where I stopped at the motherhouse of the School Sisters of Notre Dame to have lunch with Sister Mary Benno, my first-grade teacher.

June 16, 2019

I. Twice now, I’ve been to Mexico for month-long visits to study Spanish. I’ve stayed in Cuernavaca, at the home of Silvano and Lucy Velasco. They are people of modest means: I know they stretched their budget to house me,…

Pentecost June 9, 2019

I. A year after his conversion, St. Francis was praying before a large cross in Assisi’s Church of San Damiano, when he heard Christ say to him, “Francis, repair my house.” Being rather literal-minded, Francis took up the task of…

June 2, 2019

I. After she was sexually abused at the age of seven, the poet and activist, Maya Angelou, was unable to speak for nearly ten years. Out of that silence and devastation, Dr. Angelou rose to become a woman of rare…

May 26, 2019

I. Of the infinite memories I have of my mother, one is among my most cherished. It is a conversation that came at the end of a three-week hospitalization when she’d received two serious diagnoses. Being the strong-willed, single-minded Pole…

May 12, 2019

I. Jean Vanier died on Tuesday at the age of 90. He was the founder of L’Arche – “The Ark,” in French, as in “Noah’s Ark.” L’Arche is a network of faith communities where people with and without developmental disabilities…

May 5, 2019

I. Some questions make me squirm, like, “How’s that diet going?” or, “Are you saved?” Or, “Do you love me?” Jesus poses that last awkward one to Peter not once, but three times – not because of insecurity on Jesus’…

April 28, 2019

I. Essayist Andre Dubus, writes, …At seven-fifteen the priest elevated the host, then the chalice, and spoke the words of the ritual, and the bread became flesh, the wine became blood, and minutes later I placed on my tongue the…

Easter, April 21, 2019

I. “Explain Resurrection.” Google that, and you’ll get 27,300,000 attempts to describe the greatest mystery in the history of the world, even though it seems that we don’t have much to gao on. We have that empty tomb, and Mary…

April 14, 2019

“Trust the down,” Richard Rohr writes, “and God will take care of the up.” We hear today in the letter to the Philippians an ancient Christian hymn that sings of Jesus’ descent from his divine platform: being born in human…

April 7, 2019

I. I spent a few hours yesterday with a couple of friends who are helping me to declutter my condo: a spring purging. These women are ruthless. It’s so hard letting go of all that stuff, all those things that…

March 31, 2019

I. As kids, my brothers and I played Wiffle ball in front of our garage door, despite my dad’s continued warnings. There were four windows across the top of that door – a hazard for a pitcher, since our plastic…

March 24, 2018

I. A few weeks ago, I sat in a courtroom at Fort Snelling for an immigration hearing of the 28-year-old son of one of our parishioners: his name, we’ll say, is Pedro. The room was sterile, silent and tense. Pedro…

March 10, 2019

I. The desert is a place I’d rather not go: I sweat too much. Especially in the desert of Lent. The 40-day stay there requires that we travel without our usual props – no sunscreen, no tequila, no painkillers. Just…

February 10, 2019

I. I was in the Phoenix airport Friday, waiting out a three-hour flight delay, when I realized that I’d better get going on this weekend’s homily. So, I started. But while meditating on the scriptures, I also made trips to…

December 23, 2018

I. Traveling while pregnant is not for wimps. I know this not from personal experience, but from a reliable female source. Traveling while pregnant is especially difficult on a donkey. But Mary went “in haste” to see Elizabeth, whom she…

December 30, 2018

I. Back when I was growing up, it seemed that we had one, two, three, seven feet of snow every Christmas, and we didn’t complain—because Dad did all the driving and shoveling. The snow always made for a dizzying Christmas…

Christmas 2018

I. What do you want Christmas to look like? That question was posed to kids at a California Boys and Girls Club. One little girl said she wanted Santa to have a blue beard. Another thought the reindeer should have…

December 16, 2018

I. A well-known Native American legend goes something like this: A Cherokee elder said to his young grandchild, “My child, a battle goes on inside everyone. The battle is between two wolves. One is the wolf of anger, envy,…

December 9, 2018

I. You’ve heard it said that, here in Minnesota, we have two seasons: winter and road construction. But this winter, you’ll still find blocked roadways, detours, and orange cones—and John the Baptist, building his highway. Juan eases our passage by…

December 2, 2018

I. I drove to a conference in Chicago this week: seven hours of uninterrupted alone time in my car. It was ample time to navel-gaze, while keeping my eyes on the road: time to review my relationships, ponder family problems…

November 25, 2018

I. Last Monday, someone looked me square in the eye and told me to, (quote) “Cheer up.” There is no phrase in the English language less likely to cheer me up than that. I’m not quite sure what I might…

November 18, 2018

I. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! This weekend’s scripture readings lead us into the end times, so I was led to revisit and revise a file on my computer titled, “In Case of My Death.” I’ve planned the music, the…

November 11, 2018

I. They say that, “Death comes in threes.” At least, that’s what my Grandma said. Of course, it does happen—all we need to do is wait for the third death to happen. But death doesn’t only come in threes: it…

November 4, 2018

I. When someone who was considering becoming a Jew asked the great first-century rabbi, Hillel the Elder, for a concise summary of Judaism, Hillel told him, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is…

October 28, 2018

In a 1959 letter to a friend known only as “A,” Flannery O’Connor wrote, My cousin’s husband [became a Catholic] last week. He had been going to Mass…but never showed any interest. We asked how he got interested and…

October 14, 2018

I. More than once, I’ve heard someone say that getting cancer, or losing a job, or the loss of a love, was the best thing that ever happened to them, a blessing, that they’d never been better than after having…

October 7, 2018

I. Marriage isn’t for wimps. That may explain why I’m unmarried. Yet, I have the audacity to preach about marriage. At hundreds and hundreds of weddings in my celibate career. And today. So here goes… First, some historical context.

September 30, 2018

I. As many of you know, I spent my seminary years, five of them, in Rome, spitting distance from the Vatican. I will always be grateful for the countless times I was privileged to stand in St. Peter’s Basilica, built…

September 23, 2018

I. One of my favorite YouTube videos comes from a Philadelphia Phillies game. A fan leans over a railing and nabs a foul ball. He was thrilled. He hands the ball to his three-year-old daughter. To his amazement, the little…

September 16, 2018

I. I spent October of 1991 on Unit 6-A of St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Paul. I was hospitalized for depression. I was embarrassed to be there, especially because the others who were there were obviously in much worse shape…

September 9, 2018

I. An “impediment” is, literally, something that gets in the way of our feet—our “pedi,” in Latin (pedal, pedestrian, pedicure). Jesus poked, spat, and groaned to heal the man with hearing and speech impediments. Back in the olden days, when…

September 2, 2018

I. I was on retreat last week at St. Mary’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Morristown, New Jersey—safely tucked away when the clergy sex abuse scandal in this country became an even sorrier spectacle with the Pennsylvania revelations, the discoveries…

August 19, 2018

I. Some years ago, a group of American sisters traveled to Guatemala to begin work as missionaries there. Upon arriving, they were overwhelmed by the poverty and the violence that they encountered. Its effect on them was apparent to those…

August 12, 2018

A few years ago, on the backroads of San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala, I witnessed the women of that town, with their babies bundled on their backs, go to the mission’s pick-up truck to collect a sack of grain. Occasionally, a…

August 5, 2018

I. It’s called “Glamour Shots.” You’ve seen them in malls: portrait photography, as their website states, of, “you being the best version of yourself”—“you” with chicer clothes, bigger hair, and more makeup than you’ve ever imagined—with some digital touchups. They…

July 22, 2018

I. Frederick Buechner writes, Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it’s like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there…