A while ago I was visiting a parish nearby that is largely Hispanic. They were having their parish fiestas, and so there was music, a variety of activities and celebrations, and of course, food. I stopped by the food stands with a friend and we loaded up our plates. Then we turned around and started…
When I entered a diocesan seminary some years ago, one of the first things you got was a poster. The poster has pictures of the seminarians, plus the bishop and vocation directors. These posters are given out to parishes and pastors put them up in parishes for everyone to see. Immediately, then, you become a…
I learned from a very wise person many years ago that there is a key to understanding the parables of Jesus. The key is this: look for something that makes no sense, something that isn’t quite right. That’s the spot to start your exploration of what the parable means. The parable of the sower is…
When I was a child, I could walk not only around the neighborhood alone or with friends, but we could go even further and get to friends’ houses or go for bike rides and whatnot. A bunch of times I ran errands alone for my mother to stores that were about a ten-minute walk away.…
Over the last 6 months, I had been collaborating with a local school in Massachusetts and one in Ecuador to try to facilitate an exchange between the students. Setting up a connection like that has been a dream of mine, and I took it slowly, working out the relationship and trust with the faculty members…
Pope Francis just opened up a new path for canonizing saints in the church, where someone is recognized for embracing death and a dead end in life for the sake of the good of others. It gets to the very core of the Christian life: being like Jesus. Some years ago I was a religious…
Back in 1870, the Italian states decided they wanted to form a single country, and that included the Papal States, which took up a big chunk of the middle of present Italy. The Papal States were governed politically by the Pope since the 8th century, meaning for 1100 years the Pope was the political leader…
At one point in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is eating with a bunch of tax collectors. The religious people can’t understand it at all, because these were, well, tax collectors. The tax collector was pretty much the most despised person in all of Israel. This was because they were mostly Jewish people contracted by the Roman…
I once went to a youth group meeting in a parish, to get to know the youth and share in some of the activities. When I arrived, we broke into groups and each group got some printout sheets about a particular saint. We were also given a poster board and some markers to make some…
When I entered a seminary some years ago, there was a lot of talk about how great it was. The bishop said it was the best in the country. It had new and effective management, some big names in the church, and an amazing building. There were a lot of new brochures and even a…
The other day I was waiting for a train at one of the subway stations in Boston. It was very hot, and there were a lot of people standing around. In the midst of everyone, about 10 feet away from me was an older woman. She was dressed harriedly, with long, grey hair. Her neck…
Several years ago, I arrived at a small village in Ecuador, visiting for about a week. By the end of the week, I had a chance to stop by the local school and meet a few of the teachers. I asked a few of them if the school was looking for English help, as I…
