The people Jesus was addressing in the Gospel had a fixed mindset regarding marriage and divorce. We can fall into the same thing, holding on to the well-known – yet outdated – statistic that half of marriages end in divorce. The truth is much more nuanced. There are 86 divorces every hour, compared to 230 marriages an hour Marriage and divorce rates in the U.S. are decreasing for a range of reasons Estimates say 41% of first marriages will end... Read more
Do you believe that God wants you to be happy? Do you believe that the Church wants you to be happy? It seems like so often we look at God’s rules and the Church’s rules as an obstacle to our happiness. Meanwhile, it seems that the world is offering us pleasure without consequences. The Church tells us that this is a lie – and it really is one. The reality is quite the opposite. Growing up, I once had the... Read more
What place does ambition have in the life of a Christian? In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the main character struggles with his own desire to become king. He has to reflect on the nature of his deep emotional draw to the crown and his advisor, Rosencrantz tells him that “the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream” (Guildenstern in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet). The tragedy of young Hamlet shows that ill-advised ambition can lead to ruin. Yet,... Read more
I have met many young people who want to grow deeper in their prayer life and at some point come across the liturgy of the hours, wondering if this might be a good way to get some more prayer time. However, they usually find it difficult to get started. Here are five things that you should know about praying the Liturgy of the Hours. Video on Youtube 1. Lots of Names One of the first disorienting facts is that we... Read more
Today’s Gospel shows the disciples speaking with Jesus, getting to the heart of the question of his identity. At the core of this question lies the disciples’ search for happiness. We too search for happiness, only to be often disappointed by disillusionment, pain, and suffering. This happens because we become attached to the illusion of happiness and forget to look for Jesus himself. I want to share an experience that led me closer to an encounter with Jesus himself. To... Read more
One of the great challenges when we begin to read the Bible is discovering what we would first understand as errors. Reading comprehension of complicated and ancient documents is usually challenging enough; interpreting what is already a somewhat opaque religious text adds another layer of difficulty. Reading the Bible can be a powerful experience, truly incomparable to reading other literary texts. There is a dialogue happening between various actors; we have the human author, the divine author, and the reader.... Read more
God opens our ears before he opens our mouths. The order of these actions is significant. If we do not listen first, we will not speak wisely. We notice this in the natural world when we find somebody who has difficulty hearing–his or her speech is also usually affected. Jesus opened the ears and mouth of this man who was deaf with a speech impediment (cf. Mk. 7:31-37). We re-live this Gospel scene at baptisms. It is an optional rite... Read more
Today’s liturgy invites us to purify our hearts and make sure that they are centered on the Lord. We could think of it as a spiritual decontamination. I think that the spiritual contamination we suffer can often mirror the environmental contamination we hear about in the news, like this story from Los Angeles: Under the watchful eyes of neighbors, scientists in white lab coats knelt to spread a flour-like mineral over a lawn in Huntington Park. The dusting of zeolite... Read more
Today’s first reading is about the Chosen People going home to the Promised Land and the Gospel is about Christ forming small groups that make the Church feel like a home. We need to build community. Looking at data from Christians of other denominations, we find that Three out of five house church adults (61%) were “completely satisfied” with the level of community and personal connectedness they experience, compared to only two out of five adults who are involved in... Read more
Forsake foolishness and advance in understanding (cf. Proverbs 9:6). Lawrence of Arabia is known as one of the great seekers of wisdom. He was a romantic figure because he went to exotic places at a time when most men in the West were content with staying at home. His memoirs became the base for movies, biographies, and plays about his life and the outlandish features of the unknown world. We admire men like him who have the courage to set... Read more
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