Reflections of a Simple Priest

I think every one of us had had the experience of digging through the closet doing some spring cleaning and coming across some old embarrassing baby pictures.  A few days ago I saw some High School Seniors who had taken their pictures at their winter formal this year, and then put them next to photos from their 8th grade formal to show how much they had grown.  Then, on Thursday at the St. Joe's Basketball game, a group of the moms had apparently stumbled onto embarrassing photos of their kids when they were little.  When I saw all the different pictures of these now there were certainly some kids you could pick out right away.  Then, there were other kids who had changed so much, if I wasn't told who they were, I really wouldn't be sure. It's a real reality that people can and do change.  We grow up, we become different.  When we meet a family we haven't seen in a long time, don't we look at the kids and say, my, look how you've grown.  When w...

I think all of us, at one point or another have managed to do a project backwards.  I think all of us, at one point or another have gotten one of those presents for Christmas, or have kids who have gotten a certain kind of present.  These presents come with the three words that strike fear in the hearts and minds of parents everywhere.  "Some assembly required"  Invariably, we get all the pieces, and line them up on the floor, and start following the directions.  Then, about half-way through, someone says oh yeah…that makes sense…and starts working away.  A few minutes after that, someone else says….but wasn't this supposed to go on first?  My favorite experience of that was one time at my parents house when we were fixing things up and I heard…umm, isn't the insulation supposed to go inside BEFORE we nail down the drywall… Then invariably you end up tearing the whole thing apart and putting it back together again.   I think we've all ha...

When we really look at the Christmas season, it really is an incredible story.  Angels appearing and guiding people, a miraculous virgin birth, incredible dreams that warned people of upcoming events, and then the three kings.  There are some parts of the story that are simply so incredible, that they simply have to be true.  If they weren't, no one would have ever believed the story in the first place.  One of those, is the feast we celebrate today, the visit by the Magi. As the traditional story goes, the Magi saw a star rise in the east, that led them west to visit Jesus.  So basically, three kings saw a strange star in the sky, and went on a journey together to find out what was at the other side.  When we hear that version, it seems a little hokey at best, yet, if we look a little closer into the story, and if you'll forgive me for going into some of the technicalities, I'd like to share one explanation I found recently, because I really bel...

There are some human experiences that are common to all of us. Every one of us, each and every single one of us has a mother and a father. For many of us, we probably visited them over Christmas. For some of us, they’re still in good health. For others of us, we may not have been able to see them. Perhaps they were ill, and simply couldn’t handle all the commotion of Christmas. Perhaps we’ve become estranged from our parents, perhaps we never talk to them. Perhaps we lost our mother years ago. And even for a few of us, we may not even be absolutely sure just who our mother really is. Yet, at the most basic level, each and every one of us have a mother. It’s a part of being human that we must come from a mother and a father. We are conceived, we grow within our mothers womb, and we are born. That’s how it’s worked since the beginning of time. Then, as any mother can tell, there is a special connection that forms. A special unbreakable bond between a mother and child, perhaps the ...