Spring is a time when signs of life begin to pop up all around us, and our energy levels hopefully begin to rise with increased Vitamin D from the more plentiful sunshine and warmer weather. What a perfect season for us Christians to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the new life that we share in as a result of our Baptism! In the spirit of this wonderful season, I am excited to offer […]
Join award-winning author Gary Jansen and me for a special Lenten webinar that will draw from his book, Station to Station: An Ignatian Journey Through the Stations of the Cross, and offer a new way of looking at the Stations of the Cross to deepen your prayer life and provide hope in times of need. How do we respond to suffering? How did Jesus? And what can we learn from the Passion for helping us […]
With the season of Lent upon us, the question looms: “Do we pray differently during Lent?” To answer that question, I turned to Fr. Andy Alexander, SJ, the Director of the Collaborative Ministries Office and Online Ministries at Creighton University and co-author (with Maureen McCann Waldron), of Praying Lent: Renewing Our Lives on the Lenten Journey. For more information about praying during the Lenten season, check out the following links: Praying Lent: Renewing Our Lives […]
Scripture tells us that, when Jesus was born, the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.” (Luke 2:13–14) In fact, in many of our Christmas carols, we sing of peace: “Sleep in heavenly peace.” (“Silent Night”) “And praises sing to God the king, and peace to men on earth.” (“O Little Town of Bethlehem”) “His law is love and His gospel is peace.” (“O Holy […]
As mystagogues, we catechists are called to invite and accompany others into the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. This transformative experience is essentially about embracing another way of being human: thinking, speaking, and acting as citizens of the Kingdom of God. In practical terms, this means that we must be about the work of helping others think, speak, and act differently! How do we do this? By encouraging and teaching Catholic practices. In many ways, […]
Several years ago, I was redesigning my First Communion retreat to make it more experiential, especially the portion where I have the parents by themselves for a few moments while the children are participating in another activity. I was contemplating how I could not only teach the parents about, but also allow them to experience the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, so that they could pass that gift on to their children. […]
Does a young person try out for a sports team because that person thinks he or she can make the team better or because she or he thinks one can become better by joining the team? Both! The experience of joining a team is both formative and expressive. Joining the team forms us into better players, but at the same time, we bring talents to the team that help it to improve. This dynamic can […]
We continue our series, Pop-Up Prayer—brief interviews on the topic of prayer with prominent people in pastoral ministry and spiritual authors. In this episode, Todd Williamson talks about understanding the nature of communal prayer. Todd is the Director of the Office for Divine Worship for the Archdiocese of Chicago (a position he has held for 22 years!). He is also a speaker, author, and liturgist whose ministerial experience includes teaching and parish pastoral ministry. Be sure […]
We reflect on the fourth Mystery of Light: the Transfiguration of Jesus. In the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1–9), we, along with Peter, James, and John, get a glimpse of Jesus revealed in all his glory—a glimpse of what awaits at his Resurrection. Each of us is walking around with a vision of a hoped-for reality—an alternate reality—for ourselves, for those we love, for our community, and for our world. We imagine a world that exists […]
The National Eucharistic Revival, taking place now through 2025, presents us with an excellent opportunity to deepen our understanding of and devotion to the Eucharist and to foster full, active, and conscious participation in the Mass. With that in mind, I am excited to announce that I will be doing a webinar with Fr. Dominic Grassi based on our book, Living the Mass: How One Hour a Week Can Change Your Life. Living the Mass: […]
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