Living Monstrance

When Jesus sends out his apostles to preach, He sends them out as “sheep in the midst of wolves“.  (Mt 10:16)  Now, sheep cannot defend themselves, and wolves love to feast on sheep.  This looks like a definite suicide mission.  What’s the deal here?
Let me tell a story.  I’ve weighed about 160 pounds since I [...]

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My mother has a giant Divine Mercy image in her room right now.  She is so happy that it’s there, and since it first arrived, she has been very excited about it.
On one of the first days that it was there, she said to me, “You know, that picture is life-size.  If you walk up [...]

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Before I left for Maryland last August to begin with the Franciscans, I had a large image of the Divine Mercy that I wanted to give away.  I had it framed and given to my local parish.  When I came back in February, I looked around the church and didn’t notice it so I asked the [...]

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Right now, my mother has been at home struggling with cancer.  There have been ups and downs, good and bad, but we are all making it, and the Lord is doing great things in our midst.
One of the problems we face is her eating.  Her appetite hasn’t been good, so we have to be creative [...]

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Isn’t it true that everyone wants to be someone, but no one wants to be a no one?  We sort of think that way, that we must be a “one” and not a “zero”, not a nothing.  We are supposed to be all that we can be, a fulfilled, satisfied “someone”.
Aren’t we?
I think that when [...]

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The Franciscan community I lived with for a while did not have any money or means of transportation.  So, for long distances, we used different ways of getting around.  One of them was hitchhiking.
That might sound risky at first, but when you are serving the Lord, He provides.  We saw only great goodness and generosity [...]

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My mother was in the hospital for nine days.  When we finally brought her home, the first thing she did was … sleep.  Yes, sleep.  You see, one thing I’ve learned about hospitals is that no one - no one - gets rest in a hospital.  The doctors are working long hours.  The nurses and [...]

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I am living at my parents’ house right now.  The neighborhood is pretty good, a lot of families.  I guess you would call it middle-class, or working class.  But there is something that stands out - sort of.  The next-door neighbor has an early 80’s Buick Regal that has been planted in the same spot [...]

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On the go.  This seems to be the motto these days for me.  It seems like I’m running here, running there, always on the go to get something done.
But you know, every time I begin to be like that, I find that prayer becomes more difficult, life becomes less satisfying, I am more distracted, everything [...]

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Question: What do you do when your car’s gas tank is registering empty?  I think I know what you do - you drive it to a gas station.  You then probably slide your credit card at the pump, place the nozzle into the gas tank, and start to fill up.  I bet that while you [...]

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