“Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me’.” Peter clearly expresses feelings of unworthiness and Christ corrects him immediately and explains that such a feeling is an obstacle to final beatitude. No inheritance. Inheritance is a legacy, a birthright, an endowment, or an elevation to something greater. When we feel unworthy, we are filled with self-doubt and it definitely guides our behaviors, our words, even our body-language. We ask ourselves, how is it possible that we are deserving of something so wonderful? If we wallow in those feelings of self-doubt, we put up a…

Psalm 66 pulls me in. Not just because it’s a great number (for all of you who are Lemieux fans like me – just a little hockey joke to lighten the mood) but because there is one particular line that makes me feel excited. It makes me really think. That line inspires me to try to do what I do, to do it better, and to do it for the right reasons. “Come and hear, all who fear God; I will tell what God has done for my soul”. This little line, for me, is a realization of what ‘works’ for me in the ministry of catechizing, evangelizing, and inspiring.…

“Then the other servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief’.” A little context here … a nobleman has given coins to a few individuals in the hope that they will invest his treasure while he is away in search of kingly power. If we think about the coins given as the gifts that God has given us (our talents, special skills, abilities, charisms) we might have quite an ‘ah-hah’! sort of moment. Those who have traded or invested the wealth and gained interest are rewarded upon the King’s return, but this last one has tucked the treasure away. Granted,…

“There will be those who will say to you, ‘Look, there he is’, or ‘Look, here he is’. Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.” Personally, in this verse I see a message that cautions us against any practice, devotion, trend, personality, or fad that might draw me away from prioritizing Mass, Eucharist, Reconciliation, prayer, and the practice of virtue. What Christ modeled for us, what he did for us, was perfect and is perfect. There’s no improvement to perfection. No ‘new’ way or better way to achieve it. Prioritization of the basic elements of faith is crucial to a successful relationship with God and spiritual journey.

For many of you, this may be the point where your Lenten devotions begin to waiver, or maybe even fall by the wayside.  The initial furor with which we dedicated ourselves to reform, spirituality, and holiness appears to have been swallowed up by the ever present distractions over the past handful of weeks.  It may be subtle.  You suddenly recall that prayer you were committed to saying each day has been forgotten for the last three.  The snacks you’ve forsaken have finally managed to wiggle through your (initially) firmly closed lips, even for just a ‘taste’ – after all, what’s the harm in that?  The social media you’ve turned your…