How do I say this? In the seminary when it came to “the books” I didn’t exactly set the world on fire. What I’m saying is that I was no Ray Ortman. You know what I’m saying? Okay. I didn’t study that much either. But there was one place where I really felt at home. It...

Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. In today’s Gospel passage from Mark, we hear the story of the first Eucharist. In this we have the link between the priesthood of the Old Testament and the priesthood of the New...

Today celebrates the outpouring of the Spirit on the early church. Before that outpouring the disciples were locked into fear. Take Peter, the night Jesus was arrested while warming himself by the courtyard fire a panic-y Peter folded in fear when questioned if he...

“What are you looking for?”  These were the first words of Jesus in John’s Gospel, and they were addressed to His first disciples.  The funny thing is that they did not know how to answer Jesus’ question, so they dodged it by asking “where are you staying?”  To which...

Legend has it that as an old man the apostle John’s message to people always ended with, “Love one another.” The word love is mentioned nine times in today’s second reading from John 4:7-10 and ten times in today’s Gospel from John 15. With this root command of love...

The “walk through life” that we’re all on whether we know it or not we’re all on that walk. But do we want to make the “walk through life” a walk of faith? That’s up to us. So, what does the walk of faith ask of us? My nephew recently had this conversation with a...

It seems every time the Risen Jesus appears to the disciples his greeting is always the same, “Peace be with you.” But this peace that Jesus offers, how do we claim it for our own lives? A 97 year-old Benediction monk by the name of Brother David who is recognized as...

I was over at my brother’s last Sunday for Easter. My nephew Bobby whom I baptized is now a strapping teenager. In the last year or so he’s put on fifteen pounds of muscle. My fear was that he was going to challenge me to an arm -wrestling match. Fortunately, that...

It was Easter Sunday 1954. It’s Bob and June White and their four kids, my sister Liz 8, my brother Jim 5, my sister Jean 1 and me, 6. Mass at St. Olav has just let out and we’re walking down the sidewalk in downtown Minneapolis. A reporter from the Minneapolis...

Back in the 150Os a man by the name of Ignatius (he’d later become a saint) had a dream. He wanted to start a religious order that would revitalize a church that had grown quite complacent in its zeal for the Gospel. Just when it looked like his dream would happen it...