Reflections of a Simple Priest

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving.   It was really nice to take a few days to get to see my family and do a little bit of Christmas shopping.   I know at least for me, getting those few   days to see everyone really makes me thankful, especially for those who for one reason or another aren't able to see their family on Thanksgiving.   Of course, one of the wonderful things of getting to see family, is how when family gets together, they all like to share.   They even like to share their germs.   Everybody had a cold.   As I was thinking through that, it reminded me of a story I once heard about a little boy who had to go to the doctor to get a shot.   He wasn't real thrilled about it, but he agreed.   When he got to the Doctor's office, the little boy didn't want to go in.   He asked if they could go to a different doctor.   When his parents asked him why,   He looked up at the sign that said "Medical Practic...

I think when we were growing up, at least for most of us, there was always a common experience at the dinner table.   Especially when you were about 6 or 7 years old.   There would always be something on the plate you didn't like, or that you decided you really didn't want.   So you'd take your time and eat around it, hoping that mom would let you get away with it.   Then it would happen, that famous line that I think every Mother knows…"Don't you know there are starving children in the world who would love to have the food you have?"   Then, we'd feel bad, and do our best to eat it.   I think my favorite story, was once when a mom told me that as she was cleaning up after dinner, and her little boy was helping.   He scraped all the little pieces into a bowl and said to his mom...here, do you think the starving kids would want these? Can we really imagine what it would be like to be so poor that the scraps from that little boy would seem ap...

I few months ago, we had one of the most amazing preachers in the United States just a few miles away from here in New Baltimore.   Fr. Larry Richards, a priest of Erie, who now goes around the country giving retreats for men.   He had some really amazing things to say, and I have to say, I did sort of steal one of his lines for All Saints Day….    Fr. Larry used to be the chaplain at Erie Cathedral prep, which is an all boys prep school in Erie.   Well, when I was at Seminary at St. Vincent's, there were a bunch of guys there who had attended prep while he was the chaplain, and they credited him with being the reason for their vocation.   They're now wonderful priests in the Erie Diocese. As I read through this story, I couldn't help but think about the story my friends told me in Seminary, and then later Fr. Larry told me about what he would do on the first day of school with the new students.   Every year, he would gather all of the student...