Forgive me if you’ve heard me ramble about this before, but one of my favorite things that I have learned about ministry as a pastor (and not just as a carefree vicar, like Fr. Jeff…) is that a parish budget is a fundamentally theological document. Archbishop Schnurr, himself a man trained in finances, says that the quickest way to find out what is important in a parish is to take a look at where they are spending their money. If it is truly important to them, they will back it up with resources. If it isn’t, they won’t. Simple as that. Click title for full column.

One of the spiritual dangers which I consistently run headlong into is comparing myself to others. I caution people against it in the confessional almost every week, but rarely does a day go by that I do not find myself slipping into the same fault. It is a double-edged sword because there is really no positive outcome to it. Either you seem to be better than someone else, in which case you run the risk of pride, vanity, and complacency, or you seem to be worse, in which case we stray towards despair. Neither one is a helpful path towards true conversion. I found this to be the case about a year ago when Fr. Eric and Fr. Matt were moving in. Before their arrival, I had been working towards being less obsessive about my book obsession and organization as well as the proliferation of whiskey collecting. Then, as soon as they were done unpacking, I was able to excuse my own habits because I will never out-book Fr. Roush, and Fr. Feist has quite the bourbon library. Click title for full column.

One of my favorite philosophical reads is “After Virtue”, written by Alasdair MacIntyre, in 1981. I won’t bore you with my pretentious philosophical musings, but the first chapters of the book take up a theme that has been growing increasingly relevant as the years go on. Almost forty years ago, Professor MacIntyre posited that society had lost its ability to carry on meaningful moral discourse, because we have abandoned our understanding that things have a meaning and a purpose in themselves. In other words, because we no longer recognize that life, and the body, or anything for that matter, have a specific end or goal written into their design, we cannot truly debate with one another. The best we can do is work backwards to our original moral assumptions, and then scream at each other loudly until someone backs down. It is both alarming, prophetic, and even more true today than it was forty years ago. Click title for full column.

WWPR Parishioners! I hope that this finds you all doing well! I am thrilled to be joining you all as your parochial vicar this July while working alongside the pastor, Fr. McCullough. In a certain sense it is a home coming because I was baptized at St. James on June 28, 1992, and it is still the home parish of my grandfather, Dr. John Albers. It is good to be coming home! Click title for full column.