A Priest Never Stands Alone A few years ago I celebrated a funeral Mass for the member of a family, and in attendance was a mutual friend, Anne, whom I would consider to be a holy woman, and tremendously gifted by the Holy Spirit. After the committal, I was walking back to my car and Anne stopped me, practically with tears in her eyes, and said “Oh Father! When you were celebrating Mass…Father, it was…

Today is the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. Let me ask an honest question: Who cares? or perhaps better put, what’s this got to do with you and me? After all, our life is one of bills, sick relatives, and homework, so what does Jesus’ return to the Father have to do with your life and mine? To add to this seemingly irrelevant feast day, many of us think of Catholicism solely in…

I’m sure you’ve seen the words in the same place I have seen them time and time again—printed on bumper stickers, so that anyone stuck in traffic can easily read: “No Jesus (N-O), No peace. Know Jesus (K-N-O-W) Jesus, Know peace.” In our Gospel passage, Jesus says the words we hear every time we celebrate the Eucharist: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” These words are startling only when we…