First Communion 2024   Dear young people, I have some bad news for you, but then I want to explain how it is good news.   Your first Eucharist that you will receive in just a few minutes will likely taste just like the 2 practice hosts that you received at practice a few days ago.  And a lot of Catholics and non-Catholics ask why the bread, when consecrated, does not turn into visible flesh and blood.   The good news is that the bread and wine, when a priest prays the words of consecration over them, still has the appearance of bread and wine so that we can still eat ..read more

  “Cowardice” a Homily for the Memorial of St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr   I was blessed to give a witness talk and have the Mass yesterday at a local senior retreat.  I then enjoyed lunch with the seniors and the retreat chaperones.  While in line, someone took the Lord’s name in vain.  I am not sure if it was a chaperone or a student, but I know other people heard it, and that other people knew I heard it, and other people saw that I didn’t do anything to correct it.   Today the Church remembers St. Stanislaus, who was a bishop in Poland martyred by a King t ..read more

  Divine Mercy 2024 “Christ’s Glorified Body Still Has His Wounds???”   Leading up to Divine Mercy Sunday in 2020, I was in my room at the Mayo Clinic having had several brain surgeries.  I was doing Mass every day from my hospital room, but had plenty of time to research my homilies.  I was thinking then about Christ’s Resurrected and Glorified Body still having wounds from His Crucifixion.  The Catholic Church teaches that everyone, at the final judgment, will have their soul and body reunited, and that the bodies of those entering Heaven will be perfect…so I was thi ..read more

  “Stop Holding on to Me” Tuesday in the Octave of Easter 2024   Jesus makes a strange demand of Mary Magdalene in today’s Gospel “stop holding on to me”  Does he not women to touch him?  St. Thomas Aquinas quotes St. Augustine on this Passage: St. Augustine says this: “Didn’t Jesus tell Thomas to touch His side?  Who can be so absurd as to suppose that disciples should touch Him before He ascended to His Father, but not that women should touch Him before He ascended?  We read of women touching Him before He ascended, including Mary Magdalene herself in Matthew’s ..read more

  Easter 2024   Christmas is a time that most of us can, as human persons, identify with…most notably the joy of the birth of a child.  We all know mothers who have given birth to children, and those are causes for great celebration.   But Easter and the events leading up to Easter are very foreign to us on a natural level…we need to remember that all that was necessary for Jesus to save us from Hell was for Jesus to die and resurrect.  And because Jesus created space and time, Jesus could have set up the Old Testament prophecies any way He wanted to, so we are faced w ..read more

  “Perfect Love Casts Out All Fear!”   Most of the people in our Gospel today act out of fear.  Every Apostle flees when soldiers come to arrest Jesus.  Peter, after promising to never abandon Jesus, several hours later denies even knowing Jesus three times out of fear.   Pontius Pilate knows Jesus is innocent, but out of fear of the Jews and fear of losing his power, condemns Jesus to death anyway.   Many of us are tempted to be fearful.  Certainly the Devil has a lot of ammunition to make us fearful in 2024…wars, rumors of wars, plagues, elections…   B ..read more

When I was still on Twitter, when the logo for the year of mercy was released in 2015, I commented that it was hideous.   I stand by that assessment...the oversized eyes, the melding of one of their eyes...it is creepy and hideous. And then all the allegations have come out against him...that he allegedly convinced religious sisters to have sex with him so that he could create his art. Some, defending the idea that Rupnik's "art" should remain Catholic Churches all over the world say some form of "Well, Carvaggio was a drunk and may have murdered someone; are you going to take down ..read more

 The Angelus A recent survey found that 90% of Americans believe in angels, which is a greater percentage than believe in God, which does not make much sense to me, but hardly anything makes sense to me in the United States in 2024. Almost every CHAPTER in the Bible mentions angels.  Including our Gospel today, which says the angels ministered to Jesus in the desert. At every Mass, we believe that in a special and unique way ALL the Angels and saints are present here, eventhough we cannot see them...and no other Christian denomination believes that about their worship service. At M ..read more

 2 Things for Ash Wednesday 1) Give up something that you never want to go back to.  10 years ago, I gave up TV for Lent and on Easter I started watching TV again.  The next year, I gave up TV for Lent, and after Lent I was hardly watching it, but by the time Lent rolled around again, I was back watching an hour a day.  I gave up TV for a third lent...and now, for the last 4 years or so, I don't even miss TV.   2) Pick at least one partner who will hold you accountable.  I have always had a gym membership, and I have noticed that the gym crowd swells on Jan ..read more

Click HERE to watch a video shown at the Archdiocese of Indianapolis's Legacy Gala about All Saints seminarian Randy Schneider ..read more