Reflections of a Simple Priest

Today is one of those days when the secular holiday we're celebrating matches up pretty darn well with the feast we're celebrating.   This weekend, we celebrate Father's Day… and in our Church, we celebrate Trinity Sunday.   Fathers are a pretty amazing thing.   For most of us, it's from our Father that we learn independence.   Moms are usually right there, but a Father is the one who teaches by example, who provides the environment, who offers challenges, and yet, is the loving support behind it all.   It's a father who offers unconditional love, who models what a man is to be like.   It's a father that sets boundaries, and it's a father that gives us the space to grow…allowing us to make our own decisions, and yet picking us up when we fall.    I think my favorite dad story was my brother.   He called his dad, and said…can you pick me up.   I can't get the car to start…I think I flooded it.    So Dad, worried, came do...

Today we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, the Birthday of the Church.   The day when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles as tongues of flame.   From there, the Apostles were empowered by the Holy Spirit to go out and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.   They walked outside and as people gathered, they began to teach about Jesus Christ.   Miraculously, even though all of those gathered were from dozens of different areas, they all heard the same message, the same Gospel.   They all encountered the same Jesus Christ. The very real coming of the Holy Spirit shows us symbolically the two things that make the Catholic Church unique.   The people that come to mass, if we really have eyes to see, have almost nothing in common.   The famous author James Joyce once looked at the Church and said….Oh, the Catholic Church….."Here comes everybody."   It's true though, when I think of that story we hear in the Acts of the Apostles,...