Letter from the Pastor

Some young people shy away from the Church and following Jesus for fear that life will lose its luster. I’m not sure where that notion comes from. But I do know that it does not derive from the New Testament, at least not from a true understanding of the New Testament. There is enough tragedy in its pages to make it the saddest book in all the world. Yet instead there is a prevailing mood of joy, confidence, and expectation. Jesus was certainly no frowning savior. His first followers were for the most part young people. Even children were attracted […]

Do you remember, from your childhood days, the neighborhood football game when everyone wanted to play quarterback?  Sometimes you’d stand around and argue and take forever getting started.  Usually the way it was resolved was that the one who owned the ball got to call the plays.  But finally, everyone had to agree to play a different position, otherwise you could not even have a game. Then, if you stayed with the sport and gave yourself a little time to grow up, you discovered that it can be just as much fun to throw a good block as it is […]

 One of the most painful experiences in life is to be disappointed by some person in whom we have truly believed.  Sooner or later that happens to everyone.  For most it begins in childhood, with the discovery that our parents are not perfect.  They are only people with the same weaknesses and problems that afflict us all.  Then later we learn that teachers do not  always know all the answers. To experience this kind of disappointment in people is part of the process of growing up.  But it does not end with childhood.  It carries over into adult life and […]

“In the cities the wounded and dying cry out, but God ignores their prayers.”  This cry of Job must be one of the most poignant statements in the Scriptures.  Although the scholars keep telling us this is an anguished cry for help from a man in intense pain, it sounds more like a cry of despair.  After all, this is the same Job who also cried: “I give up, I am tired of living.  Leave me alone.  My life makes no sense.”  But the scholars must be right:  knowing Job, a man of faith, his outburst must have been a […]

The Bible is filled with the idea that our God is a great communicator that He both talks and listens to people.  The second half of this thought is easy for us to accept.  We as Catholics have no difficulty believing that God hears what people say.  But the first part of our thought is more complex.  If God talks to us, then when, how, and to whom does He do it?  A few times in the Bible, it is specifically stated or strongly implied that God spoke with an audible voice.  But that is the exception, not the rule.  […]