JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever! Blessings on the first day of 2024 when we honor the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, who assists us in preparing our hearts for what God might be calling us to in the months to come! As we begin this year, perhaps we have discerned some goals or resolutions that we are being invited to more intentionally pursue, whether it is working on one particular virtue, strengthening a relationship with God or another, or developing a particular gift or talent more fully in our lives.  Before modeling such goals on an Excel spreadsheet or peppering o ..read more

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever! Wishing everyone a grace-filled Christmastide and Feast of the Holy Family! It has been on my heart to share this little prayer of healing I wrote in honor of St. Joseph during 2022, when Pope Francis declared a year dedicated to the Universal Patron Saint of the Holy Catholic Church. I hope that you may find this to be helpful as we begin the new year and seek further grace, healing, and joy in our lives and vocations especially in family life.  It should be noted that this prayer was composed with the influence of several works on St. Jo ..read more

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever! This Third Sunday of Easter we hear about Jesus greeting some of the Apostles and disciples from the shore of the Sea of Tiberias, first advising them to cast their nets  onto the right side of the boat to catch fish in their empty barren nets, and then to come share their subsequent abundant one hundred fifty-three fish with him for breakfast.  As they approach, Jesus is already cooking some fish upon a charcoal fire.  The smells, the flame, the partaking of a meal with the Lord, undoubtedly stirs up a storm of emotions f ..read more

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever! As we traverse the final weeks of Lent before Holy Week, I have found myself in the room of self-knowledge with a ever-widening magnifying glass which  underscores the deep reality of my sins, wounds and failings in increasing clarity.  Of course, this is a gift as God brings such interior distortions to light in order to heal them and increases my humility and sense of child-like dependence upon Him. By His grace, I have been able to bring several of these to Confession this Lenten season and rejoice for that! At the same time, I ..read more

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever! Today we celebrate the 400th anniversary of St. Teresa of Jesus' canonization. What a glorious day for the Church then until this present day! St. Teresa's influence regarding prayer and how to live out the call to universal holiness for every vocation continues unabated and speaks to people of all different religious backgrounds, cultures, interests, and professions. Indeed, her foundations of the Discalced Carmelite Order have had  a profound impact on history within the Church, various forms of creativity and art, as well as in geopo ..read more

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever! The season of Lent is now in full swing, and the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in more intentional and sacrificial ways beckons us to go out into the desert to meet our Lord Jesus. As I respond to this invitation of purification and simplification to give space for an increased intimacy with Our Lord, I have become aware of the  jungle of my mind and heart where various hopes and desires, both ordered and disordered, war within.   I recognize that the wars that currently rage between the peoples of the Ukraine and ..read more

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever! The image of Jacob's Ladder has been coming up frequently in prayer of late. This rich symbol is one that has been used to describe the spiritual journey amongst many theologians and mystics throughout salvation history.  The symbol is taken from a dream given to Jacob while traveling to marry one of the daughters of Laban.  This journey  follows the surreptitious paternal blessing he had received from his father Isaac through trickery which rightfully belonged to his twin brother Esau.  The Genesis account tells us ..read more

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever! Today we celebrate the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows in which we commemorate the many sufferings Our Lady endured upon giving her fiat and becoming the Theotokos.  Traditionally, her seven sorrows or dolors consist of the prophesy of Simeon that a sword of sorrow would pierce her heart; the Holy Family's flight into Egypt as political refugees; the losing of the Child Jesus in the Temple area; the Way of the Cross; the Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord Jesus; the Descent of Jesus from the Cross; and the burial/entombment of Jesus. On ..read more

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever! This reflection was first published with the Oxford Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality Lent 2021. God's Creative Beauty I must admit that I am enamored with birds. Their beauty, effortless flight, graceful movements, and melodic calls and warbling captivate my attention and stir my soul upward with their ascent. When I watch them, I taste an interior freedom and desire to glide in the wind, with carefree abandon.  God has spoken to me many times of what it means to hope and enjoy true freedom of spirit through these feathere ..read more

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever! What a glorious Feast Day today is as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus! It calls to mind the tenderness and love that emanates from Jesus' Heart and the blood and water that flows forth in a torrent of Divine Love that invites us to receive, to say 'yes' to His overtures, and to bathe in those purifying waters.   I know that Jesus is constantly drawing me ever close to Himself and beckoning me into increasing intimacy with Him. Nonetheless, I find that at times I recoil from His palpitations of love by respond ..read more