4th Sunday of Easter Two thoughts for you this Sunday...

Happy Easter!

4th Sunday of Lent We were created in love by God (white), then we fell into and were captured by sin (black), but "even when we were dead in our transgressions" "God, who is rich in mercy...brought us to life with Christ...raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus" (white). And now, all throughout each day, in so…

2nd Sunday of Lent The Birkie is an incredible yearly event! So many people, come from all over the country (and the world) to make this experience possible — whether it’s the skiers, the many volunteers, the family members, the friends, the staff, all our business owners — everyone comes together, preps, and plays their part to make this week happ…

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time In our Gospel today we see Jesus healing those who are sick or possessed by demons, restoring some people physically and some people spiritually. Jesus' wholeness heals others. While His apostles aren't yet healing others at this point in their lives, we know that one day they will. While the saints aren't yet healing ot…

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time The spiritual life, I believe, is actually very simple; it’s not easy, but it’s simple. It’s following the impulses that come from deep within, the calls that arise from the depths of our soul and heart, from the place within us where God already dwells. God is so much closer to us than we realize. God molded our inmost …

Merry Christmas! Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.”

4th Sunday of Advent Mary is hailed today as full of grace, full of God's blessings. Our lives, too, are filled with God's blessings...but it's so easy to forget and miss those blessings (and our sins lead us to forget God's blessings as well). As we enter into this Christmas season, let us, like Mary, recognize our blessings and remind ourselves a…

2nd Sunday of Advent Christ comes to bring a peace that every heart and soul longs for but which nothing in the world is able to provide.What we need is more of God, more holiness, more of God's light shining in and through us. And as we experience God's light shining out through us, both we and others experience the peace that this world cannot gi…

34th Sunday in Ordinary Time At the end of this liturgical year our readings focus on the end of time, the final judgment, and the coming of God's kingdom in its fullness, the completion of God's great plan for all of creation. Jesus speaks of all people being assembled before the Son of Man, and that "he will separate them one from another, as a s…

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time No matter how many talents we believe the Master has given us, no matter if we have used them wisely up until this point or not, we all still have at least one talent (and an important one) - faith! And our Master expects us to use whatever we have right now, engage with it, "trade" with it, and intentionally multiply t…

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time This weekend I am thankful to preach back at my home parish of St. Patrick in Hudson. Thank you to all of you who inspired me in the faith and grew me into who I am today. I am a priest because of you. As Paul said in our second reading, "We were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selv…

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time I’ve been hearing a lot of discouragement at the state of our world, our country: the divisions, the politics, the games, the manipulation from all sides. I hear people sad that many of their own kids have fallen away from the active practice of the Catholic faith, that their own grandkids or great-grandkids aren’t bapt…

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time As we realize the state of the world around us (perhaps recently we have been awakened to the ever-present realities of atrocities and evils throughout our world by the media coverage of the war in Israel), but as we realize the state of the world around us, we can respond to what's happening in three ways: by being dis…

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Last Advent we preached about the 4 Marks of a Disciple: Quick to Pray, Joyfully Sacramental, Intentional in Relationships, and Committed to Growth. Since then, I hope that you’re finding yourself on certain weeks striving to grow in one or another of those Marks as we have continued to bring them up in preaching. This …

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” “Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven… Remember your last days, set enmity aside;” “So will my heavenly Father do yo you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”…

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Last week we heard about how the gates of the netherworld would not prevail against the Church, how Jesus actually sees His Church as being on the offensive, and how the gates of darkness will not be able to hold back His kingdom. This week's readings continue and clarify that them, showing us what it will actually cost…

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time In our Gospel today Jesus says an often misinterpreted and misunderstood line: "upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it." In the face of such seemingly steep opposition, pushback and darkness in our modern world, I believe this line of Jesus, correctly underst…

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time This weekend is the kickoff for our annual diocesan Catholic Services Appeal (CSA). The CSA provides incredible opportunities to spread the faith of Jesus Christ in northwestern Wisconsin - for our seminarians, for our youth, for our schools, for our parishes - opportunities that I witness and see the fruits of firsthan…

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time In our first reading, there’s a strong heavy wind crushing rocks, there’s an earthquake, there’s a raging fire. In our Gospel there’s a stormy sea. But where is God in the midst of it all? In the noise of our lives (which will always be there), I want you to look for God in the small moments, the daily moments, the unno…

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time This week, no matter where you're at, I am challenging you to take one real step in prayer. I don't care where you think you're at now - whether you only come to church when you're visiting Grandma and Grandpa, or whether you have a daily hours long prayer regimen that you have followed for years - no matter where you a…

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time "Rabbi" means "teacher". "Disciple" means "student". In Israel, 2,000 years ago, there were a couple formulaic statements that a rabbi would use to call a disciple and then invite that disciple to take on the rabbi's worldview and become like him (one statement we find in today's Gospel!). Then at the end of this period…

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity A Lazy River with a bunch of kids is never “lazy” — it’s always moving, surprising, dynamic, alive! Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. And what we profess every single time we make the sign of the Cross — “In the name of the F, and of the S, and of the HS” — is that our God isn’t a boring, …

Pentecost Sunday On this Memorial Day Weekend we remember our United States Military personnel who have died while serving in the US Armed Forces: we honor them, express our gratitude, pray for them...and even pray to them. We believe in the Communion of Saints, that we are one body in Christ, and that we help one another on this journey towards fu…

6th Sunday of Easter As we celebrate Mother’s Day weekend, as we honor mothers who hold their children dear and close in their hearts and minds, we look to Mary as the model of not only earthly motherhood, but also as the model of a disciple who invites the Spirit of God into her life, who ponders and intentionally holds in her mind the experiences…

3rd Sunday of Easter Acts 2:42 describes what the very first followers of Jesus did: “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.” Those sure sound like the 4 Marks of a Disciple…because they are! Christianity isn’t a belief, or a set of beliefs, it’s a way of li…

Easter Sunday Happy Easter! Imagine…imagine that you go to bed one night, and when you wake up in the morning the world has been transformed overnight. Everything that you envision for a better world, all of the change you’d like to see — in societies, situations, individuals, countries — it all happened, magically, overnight. Now…when you wake up …

Palm Sunday Everything Jesus did, He did for individual people; everything He did was personal. His life, his preaching, his healings, his interactions, his suffering, his death, his resurrection - Jesus did all of this for individual people; it was personal. He didn’t do it to “do right” or to “be good”; he didn't do it for a moral code; Jesus was…

4th Sunday of Lent This weekend I am speaking on the Third Mark of a Disciple - what it means to be Intentional in Relationship! Last weekend Deacon Brian gave a great homily on the First Mark: Quick to Pray. That can be found on our Hayward Catholic website in text format (https://haywardcatholic.org/recent-homilies) or, as he sings a couple verse…

1st Sunday of Lent In this first Sunday of Lent I unpack the second mark of a disciple of Jesus Christ: being Joyfully Sacramental!

Ash Wednesday Here is my homily from Ash Wednesday, introducing our Lenten themes of Fasting and the Four Marks of a Disciple!

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time I recently went on an 8-day silent retreat. Many have been asking, “Father, how was the retreat?!” So I’d like to share with you a bit about silent retreats in general as well as some of what happened and what God was up to on my retreat!

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Listen to a real, down-to-earth story of barstool evangelization! When we are sharing with others, what we're meant to share is not primarily information, but our own experience of God, faith, prayer, and why it's important to us. People don't primarily want to hear theological reasons or arguments (even though they migh…

Merry Christmas! God rest ye merry gentlemen Let nothing you dismay Remember Christ our Savior Was born on Christmas Day To save us all from Satan's pow'r When we were gone astray O tidings of comfort and joy Comfort and joy O tidings of comfort and joy

4th Sunday of Advent In this Advent Homily Series we are journeying through the greatest story ever told, the story that has changed and will continue to change the world (if we let it): our story – the creation, the capture, the rescue, and our response! Listen this week as Deacon Brian focuses in on what our response can be to the God Who has don…

3rd Sunday of Advent In this Advent Homily Series we are journeying through the greatest story ever told, the story that has changed and will continue to change the world (if we let it): our story – the creation, the capture, the rescue, and our response! Listen this week as Fr. David focuses in on what it means to be rescued by Jesus.…

2nd Sunday of Advent In this Advent Homily Series we are journeying through the greatest story ever told, the story that has changed and will continue to change the world (if we let it): our story – the creation, the capture, the rescue, and our response! Listen this week as Deacon Dave focuses in on what it means to be captured.…

1st Sunday of Advent This Advent Homily Series we are journeying through the greatest story ever told, the story that has changed and will continue to change the world (if we let it): our story - the creation, the capture, the rescue, and our response! Listen this week as Fr. David zooms in on what it means to be created.…

Solemnity of Christ the King On this great Solemnity, Deacon Brian prepares us for our Advent journey by outlining the great story we will be sharing over the homilies of Advent, the story that has changed and will continue to change the world (if we let it): our story - the creation, the capture, the rescue, and our response.…

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time In the midst of very important, but ultimately short-sighted, concerns of this world and concerns of politics, I believe that we are losing our way. And when we don’t keep our eyes on the world to come, our outlook on this world, on our country and on others begins to degrade - it loses the light of Christ, and it feste…

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time In our familiar Gospel story of Zacchaeus, Jesus does something that might entirely change how you see Jesus' life, and what that means about how you are called here and now to live as disciples of Jesus! In our Gospel today, we hear that Jesus came to Jericho and "intended to pass through the town"...Jesus intended to …

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Why is it that so many people (including many of your children whom you raised in the Church and brought to the sacraments and taught to be generous and to care for others) have fallen and continue to fall away from our incredible Catholic Faith and belief in Jesus Christ? The Church has three jobs: to evangelize, to ce…

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time In today's Gospel we hear of the rich man and Lazarus both before then after their deaths; after death, Lazarus find himself in the bosom of Abraham (i.e. heaven) while the rich man is in the netherworld (i.e. hell). What sin did the rich man commit? There are two kinds of sin in Scripture, and in our culture we tend to…

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time This weekend I officially took over the sacramental and administrative duties for three more parishes in our area after the retirement of Fr. Greg Hopefl, a long-time and honored priest of our diocese. This was my first weekend preaching at St. Philip in Stone Lake, St. Francis Solanus on the Lac Courte Oreilles Reserve…

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time This weekend is the kickoff for our annual diocesan Catholic Services Appeal (CSA). The CSA provides incredible opportunities to spread the faith of Jesus Christ in northwestern Wisconsin - for our seminarians, for our youth, for our schools, for our parishes - opportunities that I witness and see the fruits of firsthan…

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time As disciples, we are called to be salt of the earth people. Not too salty (we've all had bad experiences of that), but also not non-salty...because that's just not being true to who we are as Christians. We're called to be healthily salty, normally salty. Disciples of Jesus Christ ought to be ordinary, fun, prayerful, g…

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time Our response during this Apostolic Time starts with something we already know very well: relationships. We have been rescued by Jesus and sent to bring others to relationship with Him so that He can rescue them, too! The whole reason the Catholic Church exists is to bring people to Jesus. "Bringing people to Jesus" does…

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Part II: a taste of where we're headed in the upcoming weeks and months!

Corpus Christi You ever wonder why you brought your kids up going to Church and educated them in Catholic schools…and yet most of them don’t go to Church anymore? You ever worry about why, even though you tell your kids and grandkids that they should go to church and pray, and even though you tell them that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, …

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Last summer I challenged everyone to Meet 6, to meet six people from church. This summer I'm asking you to take the next step. Christian community isn't simply meeting or knowing people or getting together; that's a first step...but Christian community involves Jesus Christ! Christian community is about Christ-inf…