Prayer & Reflection - March 14, 2023 - Jesus talks about forgiveness a lot for someone who, being a perfect person, presumably never needed to be forgiven himself. He only did the hard part – freely forgiving others for their wrongdoings while never experiencing the consolation of being forgiven by someone else. Why is it that the same sinful nature which requires me…

Prayer & Reflection - March 10, 2023 - Joseph, Jesus, and Jealousy Jealousy is an interesting emotion to sit with during Lent’s middle dredges. Jealousy hopefully sits on the outside of the skin to be dealt with honestly and quickly. When it sits inside and festers it can lead to egregious errors or even sin. The mystery of taking forty days in our…

Prayer & Reflection - December 28, 2022 - “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song!” For some, the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospels are beautiful stories of an event experienced by the disciples long ago. We believe that Jesus has risen from the dead based on these accounts, but do we realize resurrection’s implications in our own lives?…

Prayer & Reflection - December 17, 2022 - As a child, I remember how long Advent felt as I anticipated presents on Christmas morning and a week off school. As an adult, I have the opposite feeling, marveling at how quickly Advent flies by. Instead of something to anticipate, Christmas feels like a deadline with so much to do and not enough time…

Prayer & Reflection - December 16, 2022 - For my house shall be calleda house of prayer for all peoples.Thus says the Lord GOD,who gathers the dispersed of Israel:Others will I gather to himbesides those already gathered. (Isaiah 56: 7b-8) “We don’t serve people because they are Catholic; we serve them because we are.” (Proclaimed and modeled by any number of Catholic Charities…

Prayer & Reflection - December 10, 2022 - As we continue on our Advent journey, we seem to be racing toward Christmas and the gifts of newborn hope, joy and optimism that await us through the holy celebration of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus — in just two weeks! Christmas is also a sobering reminder that our Savior and King of the…

Prayer & Reflection - December 7, 2022 - “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” The end of a long shift, a long day, a long trip, a long week…how many times do we feel burdened, seeking nothing more than to set down our load, breathe slowly, and close our eyes? The sweet rest…

Prayer & Reflection - December 4, 2022 - It has been an odd winter in Northern Nevada. Climate change scientists tell us that many of our winters going forward will not have a familiar look or feel. The trees around town clutched their green leaves long into November, and those that did begin the slow change to autumn, resisted surrender even after the…

Prayer & Reflection - December 3, 2022 - Go and set the world on fire! Today is the feast day of St. Francis Xavier, a 16th century Jesuit missionary. When he was being sent by St. Ignatius Loyola to the Far East, he was told to “go and set the world on fire.” He did just that, as he was an insatiable laborer…

Prayer & Reflection - November 27, 2022 - So, Advent is with us again. Not nearly enough days — even with the longest possible calendaring of the season this year — to do all that I hope and expect for Advent. What great mercy that none of this is about me (or you), in the small personal sense. Please consider this permission to…

Prayer & Reflection - April 10, 2022 - “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song!” For some, the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospels are beautiful stories of an event experienced by the disciples long ago. We believe that Jesus has risen from the dead based on these accounts, but do we realize resurrection’s implications in our own lives?…

Prayer & Reflection - December 25, 2021 - CCUSA’s Daily Advent Reflections: Christmas Day For many of us, the cards have been sent and received, the gifts wrapped and now opened, the meal around the table perhaps still anticipated. We have sung the carols of rejoicing in our parishes. But what does this confounding mystery of incarnational love mean for us, going forward…