St. John the Evangelist tells us in today’s Gospel a story of a wedding, but so does the prophet Isaiah in our first reading: the wedding of God and his people. …you shall be called “My Delight,” and your land “Espoused.” For the LORD delights...

On this very night, exactly two hundred years ago, the world received a great gift: one without which tonight would not be the same for so many of us. In 1818, in a small church in a small town in what is now Austria, for the first time, the...

Imagine a non-Catholic coming to you and saying, “Tell you what: I’ll become Catholic if you can explain your faith to me while I stand on one foot. Ready? Go!” What would you say? What could you say in so short a time? Believe it or not, that...

“It is not good for the man to be alone.” The words “not good” jump out in the first reading, from Genesis 2 — especially if we go back and start reading in Genesis 1, with the six days of creation, in which God looks day by day at his work and...

When Suz and I first began to talk about becoming Catholic, one of the first things she wanted to know was: “If I become Catholic, will I have to pray the Rosary?” “No,” I assured her. “Catholics are not obliged to pray the Rosary.” She also...

New York Times op-ed writer Frank Bruni writes in “The Many Faces of Brett Kavanaugh” about the different, sometimes conflicting facets that make up the people we know, or think we know. His comments resonate in part with some of my own recent...

Note: This is one of the tougher homilies I’ve preached. It was also one of the best received. My takeaway: The faithful don’t want homilists to dodge the hard topics. We must not fear the truth. — SDG A few weeks ago my family and I were...

Part 1 | Part 2 Part 1 summary: Life issues or pro-life issues are far broader than one or two issues (abortion and euthanasia). While this is debated by pro-life Catholics, Pope St. John Paul II clarifies the issues in The Gospel of

Part 1 | Part 2 Within the last week, the term “pro-life” has come under crossfire from two Catholic writers coming from almost diametrically opposed perspectives. “The Pro-Life Movement Has Lost,” writes Rebecca Bratten Weiss at Patheos, while...

Recently Suzanne and I were talking with friends here at St. John’s about our first impressions of this beautiful church. I remember being here for the first time, over 16 years ago, and being amazed at the beauty of this church in comparison to...