A Pentecost Examination of Conscience 2024 Today, we celebrate one of the great Solemnities in our Catholic Church.  It is the Solemnity of Pentecost.  Pentecost was originally a harvest feast for the Jewish People, but of course it became the day where the Holy Spirit was first poured out on humanity.  And what happens??? The Holy Spirit immediately turns cowards into men and women of great courage who run out of their locked room and immediately start preaching the Good News of Jesus without any fear whatsoever.   I have said many times that on the day of my Confir ..read more

  May Crowning 2024 “On Catholics Worshipping Statues”   Most non-Catholic houses of worship do not contain any statues of saints nor images of any saints.  Why is this?  It is based on a misreading of Exodus 20:4.  Exodus 20:4 says “You shall not make any GRAVEN images” and lest anyone doubt that God meant “NO STATUES NOR IMAGES” in Exodus 25 God COMMANDS Moses to make 2 statues of angels for the Tabernacle.   And on whether it is right to seek anyone to intercede for us, it is important to remember that we all ask each other to pray for things all the time…"Dave ..read more

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  “The Father Prunes Those Who Bear Fruit So They can Bear MORE Fruit” Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter, 2024   The first Fall Saturday when I was a seminarian at St. Meinrad, I popped a bowl of popcorn and had prepared to watch several college football games in the TV lounge.  I expected lots of other seminarians to do the same.  Only one other guy showed up, and so, after about an hour, I got up and found something better to do with my time.   Jesus says in our Gospel that God the Father will prune all those who are ALREADY bearing fruit so that we can bear MORE f ..read more

 Below is a video series that All Saints Catholic Church, one of my 4 parishes, called "Rise Up".  It also is a summary of my homily yesterday for the 4th Sunday of Easter ..read more

  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