The Feast of the Holy Family is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to preaching a column material. Does one talk about the centrality of the family in the discernment of one’s vocation? Does one talk about Jesus’ obedience to Mary, Joseph, and the old law that He Himself had come to fulfill? Perhaps a word about Simeon and Anna,and their anticipation of the Savior’s advent? Some imprudent preachers lean in and give one thirty-minute homily with four subsections, but I strive to avoid such things, as I try not to get booed out of the ambo whenever possible. Click title for full column.

In the department of odd statistics that I track, it probably comes as no surprise that I travel about three times more as a pastor of three parishes than I did as the vicar of one. In an effort to make the most of my time on the road, I have taken to getting in more car rosaries, as well as burning through podcasts and audiobooks. There is almost no limit to great Catholic content out there, and even with all the time in the car, I feel like I am always behind on formation opportunities on the go. Click title for full column.

On this Gaudete Sunday, it is with great joy that we invite you to an incredible Advent opportunity—a candlelit Rorate Caeli Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary on Saturday, December 19 at 6:30 am. On December 1, Fr. McCullough posted an excellent video on our WWPR Facebook page describing the Rorate Caeli Mass and how it will look a little bit different. The video can also be accessed on our parish website. If you’d prefer the written word from the Vicar, then here you go! Click title for full column.

Seven years ago, before my time in Miami learning Spanish, I took a week-long retreat at the Trappist Monastery of Gethsemane, down in Kentucky. It was a wonderful time of silence and prayer, and a chance to do some of my favorite things: pray, read, and not talk to anyone. In fact, just knowing that there is a place out there where no one is permitted to talk brings joy to the cockles of my heart. While I was there, I found myself fascinated by the life of the monks themselves. There are many aspects of their horarium that one might find interesting, but I think the simplest way to explain what captures the modern imagination about hermits and cloistered religious is that they are, in a word, weird. Click title for full column.

It is hard to believe I have been at the Winton Wyoming Pastoral Region for 5 months now. It feels like just yesterday we were preparing for Lent and Easter during this craziness. Now, all of a sudden, Advent is here, and Christmas is around the corner. We can definitely give thanks we are able to prepare and worship together during this Advent season. We just need to be on guard that we do not let Advent become another month that quickly passes us by. Click title for full column.

One of my favorite ministerial things to do as a priest is holding marriage prep meetings. They are time-consuming, and it is sometimes difficult to coordinate three busy schedules to find sufficient time to talk about the work that goes into a successful marriage, but it is also one of the places where it is easiest to see the Holy Spirit at work in people’s vocations. One of my favorite occurrences in these meetings is when we stumble across unknown discrepancies in the couple’s understanding of their relationship. Perhaps the most common is seeing the difference in how much money they feel comfortable spending without telling their future spouse. Ultimately, all of these discrepancies come down to the question of how much control over their lives the spouses are prepared to cede on behalf of the good of the relationship. Click title for full column.

This Sunday’s parable of the servants receiving talents from their master is a beautiful lens by which we can enter more fully in the Eucharistic Prayers at Mass—especially the First Eucharistic Prayer, sometimes referred to as the Roman Canon. The lens is the radical humility and generosity of self that God asks for us. The servants who received 5 and 2 talents were rewarded for being generous in striving to increase what their master had given them. These servants realized they received an unmerited gift, and the only fitting response was to humbly and radically give of themselves and what they had received. The third servant, motivated by self-preservation and fear, buried his talent, to which our Lord says the master called him “You wicked, lazy servant!” Click title for full column.

We have arrived at a perfect storm of sorts, friends. The pandemic and its isolation, seasonal affective disorder, daylight savings time- induced depression because it’s pitch black at about 6:00 pm now, Zoom meetings, you name it. Add in political ads and all the partisan turmoil raging around us, and it’s amazing that people are as happy and balanced as they are. But the fact remains that the end of the year does not have the same easy optimism and hope as spring or summer. Perhaps it is for all these reasons that the end of each liturgical year focuses our minds on the end of days and the four last things: death, judgement, heaven, and hell. Click title for full column.