Last week at Mass, I spoke briefly about my experience at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. We were there to serve and learn from the traditions of the Lakota Indians. For much of the week we were out in the field doing work projects. The first day out, the work boss...

The Canaanite woman It’s hard to figure this story out. A woman is hurting and Jesus is uncharacteristically dismissive of her. At first, he ignores her. He won’t even speak to her. Was he having a bad day? A little background can help. The Canaanite woman belonged to...

As a kid I was good at baseball. The problem was I wasn’t that good at. I had a weak arm and was even weaker at the plate. When I was at bat they used to move the outfielders in so if I happened to bloop one over the second baseman’s head they could throw me out at...

A story you may be familiar with. A monastery had fallen on hard times. Its numbers had dwindled. There were only five monks left in the monastery, the Abbot and four others. All were over seventy. Clearly it was a dying order. A Rabbi from town occasionally visited a...

Fr. Bob - Moving Away from a Fear Based Religion The first two words of the profession of faith we say at every mass after the homily are “I believe”. Two interesting words. I believe what? I believe that we’re going to get a lot of snow next winter. Can you blame me....

I had this conversation with my dad when I was kid. As a 5th grade altar boy, I remember talking to my dad about how scared I was of Fr. Driscoll. Fr. Driscoll was our pastor at Christ the King in south Minneapolis.At the end of the conversation, Dad reminded me “Bob,...

As we heard in today’s Gospel from John 3:16 “God the Father so loved the world that he sent his only Son”. God becoming one of us, we know that at Christmas.   Crank the calendar ahead. Last weekend we heard about the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We know that...

Deacon Ray - A Pilgrim People Today, as we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, we mark the end of the Easter Season.  In the Gospel, God-in-the Flesh appeared to His disciples on Easter Sunday to send them forth with Peace.  In Acts, God-in-the-Spirit came at...

Disguised as Your Life Jesus promised the disciples that he would reveal himself to them through the Holy Spirit.  So, it is for us. Christ reveals himself to us through the Holy Spirit. Spiritual writer and storyteller Paula D’Arcy puts it this way, “God comes to you...

Discovering Life Before Death That’s quite the story we just heard, a dead man coming out of a tomb. As they’d say down at Floyd’s Bare, “Heck of a story.” The question Jesus asks Martha is the question that he asks us. “I am the Resurrection and the life. Do you...