Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and The Poor Widow
You may have heard that Mark Zuckerberg is giving away 99% of everything that he makes with Facebook. Do you know how much that is? Forty-five billion dollars to charity. Bill Gates (who has actually outdone him) has given away 90 billion dollars over his lifetime. Yet, we hear the story of this poor widow […]
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Fall In Love With God
When I was in the seminary, I made a wonderful eight-day retreat with Fr. Bob Welsh. He is a Jesuit priest who just died this past year. He said a lot to me that changed my life forever. As I was coming to the end of my retreat, he said to me, “Michael, the most […]
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Priesthood Sunday: My Vocation Story
As I mentioned before, today we celebrate Priesthood Sunday. I would like to take a moment to reflect on the priesthood – particularly my own calling. Whenever I’m at a new place, I like to share just a little bit about my own vocation story so that hopefully it might inspire others to think about […]
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Redemptive Suffering
“The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.” This is the first line in the first reading. I want to meditate on that for a little bit. Does it seem a little strange to you? “The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.” Maybe if we hear that we should stop for a […]
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Saint Romero Died At The Altar. How Will You Become A Saint?
Today, in the Vatican in Rome, Archbishop Romero is being canonized a saint. I did not know much about Romero until I was in the seminary and took a trip there. In the Diocese of Cleveland, we have a group of priests from our diocese that actually live there. We have a mission in El […]
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Should You Cut Off Your Hand If It Causes You To Sin?
I would like to reflect on the pattern of coming together and separating: God bringing us together and also separating us when He brings us together. We hear in the first reading that the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. He gathered everybody that was together in the tent. He took the […]
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Does Not Compute
There’s a meme that has become popular in some parts of pop culture, especially the science fiction genre. You might have seen this in Futurama or the Simpsons or Alien the movie, but the meme goes something like this: there’s a computer robot shaking his hands and saying, “Does not compute. Does not compute.” And […]
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Who Is Jesus? Who Do You Say I Am
Many of you know that I love technology. I also love learning how we can use technology to help build up the kingdom of God. You may know about the ministry I have called The Prodigal Father, which is using the new media and technology to help people grow in their prayer life. One of the […]
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Winnie the Pooh and Thomas Aquinas
In this homily, I’m going to try to tie together Winnie the Pooh, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the readings for this Sunday’s Mass. So, see if you can keep up and pay attention with these thoughts. I went to see the movie, Christopher Robin. It is a Disney movie that came out recently, and Disney […]
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John the Baptist
Today is a very special day for me. It is actually an anniversary for me – the anniversary of my Baptism. That’s right. Thirty-nine years ago, I was baptized into the faith, and it is celebrated as one of the most important days of my life. It is also the feast day of John the […]
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