It seems that the number one indicator for success in relationships is good communication. Furthermore, the number one indicator of good communication is problem-solving skills. And, taking it one step beyond, I believe that those who are the best problem-solvers are those who understand and manage their defense mechanisms or coping skills. Though it might […]
Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his recent book, Nine Essential Things I Have Learned About Life, passes along wisdom from his advanced place near the sunset of his human life. He writes: “My theology is less and less about who God is or what God does, and more and more about who we are and what […]
The Pogues, an Irish band, titled one of their albums “If I Should Fall from Grace with God” while Father Richard Rohr, a Franciscan friar, titled one of his books Falling Upward. Both—their music and his writings—are incredibly spiritual art-forms that bring listeners and readers to deeper places within the human condition and deeper places […]
In His Sermon on the Mount, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says: “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” In another version, Luke’s Gospel, in what is sometimes called The Sermon on the Plain, Jesus says: “Be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful.” Is it any wonder that Pope Francis chose his […]
I have recently been blessed with the opportunity of providing spiritual guidance to people in a beautiful facility at Saint Charles Parish in Kansas City’s northland. Though I have a degree in psychology and am fascinated by human behavior, through my years of priesthood my mind and heart shifted me to become more interested in […]
Approaching the thirtieth anniversary of my ordination, I find it to be an appropriate moment in time to reflect, confess, and recommit: reflect on God’s call, confess my response—and sometimes lack thereof, and recommit to what I’m doing. “Vocation” comes from the Latin “vocare” meaning to call. In religious vernacular, it means a way of […]
In the chaos of this month from May Day to Memorial Day, Cinco de Mayo to Mother’s Day, the Kentucky Derby to the Indy 500, graduations to weddings, May crownings to First Communions, closing schools to opening pools, and classrooms to ball fields, we try to catch up with ourselves coming and going. Some cultures […]
