Mark was an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist. He and his wife, Susan, had been EM’s for several years. But Susan hadn’t exercised her ministry for a long time. She’d been suffering from medical problems for more years than she cared to remember—-one thing after another. What was really difficult for Susan was that she…Continue reading What does God want us to do?
This story I am about to tell you took place during the second war in Iraq. The U.S. soldiers who were involved in this conflict were under great strain. They had to be careful of land mines along the roads, snipers, and all kinds of set ups and traps. There was one particular group of…Continue reading Christ Died For Us
Frank had a problem, and it was something that he’d been dealing with all his life. What was this problem? Frank would always fall into the wrong way of thinking—the wrong way of looking at a situation; getting lost in himself and allowing fear and frustration to overwhelm him. It effected his relationship with his…Continue reading Take up the Cross
I would like to share with you a journal entry written by a young woman: “They can harass us, they can rob us of our material goods, of our freedom of movement. But we ourselves forfeit our greatest assets by our misguided compliance; by our feelings of being persecuted, humiliated, oppressed; by our own hatred….Continue reading Possess Real Peace
A guy in his late thirties went to visit his grandmother who was in an assisted living facility. The grandmother was in her nineties but still pretty “with it”. During the visit Mitch couldn’t help but start talking about the divorce that he was going through. It was already starting to get very messy. His…Continue reading God will come through for you
Meredith was a person who liked to plan. And these plans would cover every aspect of her life, from her job, to her home, to social events on the weekend. And if her plans were changed, she would not handle it well. Meredith was also very hard on herself. She would blame herself for wrong…Continue reading Accept our Weaknesses
Sam and Mary had been married for just over 50 years now. Sam had always thought to himself, “I could never live without ‘my dear Mary’”. He would often jokingly say to his wife, “I’d better be the one to go first, I would be way too lost without you!” So, when Mary died rather…Continue reading We are not alone
“How’s that going to work?” I would venture to say that we might ask that question as often as once a day, maybe even more. We ask this question in the very mundane situations of everyday life, and perhaps when we are confronted with more serious situations. What makes us ask this question? We ask…Continue reading All things are possible for God.
Two men are having lunch together. One is Catholic and the other Jewish. They worked together for a number of years now and got along pretty well. They considered themselves friends and got together socially from time to time. On this particular day the conversation came around to religion and Keith, the Catholic guy, asked,…Continue reading God Chooses Us
James couldn’t figure out why he had to deal with the same sins over and over again. “What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I just make up my mind not to do them anymore, and follow through with that promise? What are the words of the act of contrition that I say all the time:…Continue reading The Power of Grace
A guy in the parish, Chris, needed to see the Pastor. This wasn’t the first time this happened. When he got worked up about something, he would usually seek this priest’s advice. It seemed that Chris was deeply worried that he might lose his job. His company was beginning a series of department reviews, and…Continue reading Trust in God
During the Second World War, when the Nazi armies were in almost every country of Europe, King Christian of Denmark stubbornly resisted the Nazis. His country was quite small compared to powerful Germany, and the king knew he could not win on the battlefield, but he put up a valiant moral struggle. One day he…Continue reading Nativity of John the Baptist