I spend a fair bit of my time talking with engaged couples about their hopes and dreams for their life together. These wonderful couples range from folks who were widowed after forty-plus years of marriage and are now remarrying, all the way down to couples where one or both spouses were born after the turn of the new millennium. It’s quite the spectrum of experience, and the conversations are always illuminating. But one of the things that these couples universally have to do is negotiate on how they will blend their habits and expectations together in marriage. What type of toothpaste, chunky vs. smooth peanut butter, and which side of the bed each party claims all have to be settled. Life and death matters, these. Similarly, we are at the beginning of an ongoing conversation in our family of parishes about how best to unify some of our practices and traditions to be more visibly one in Christ. And while none of you will ever convince me to switch back to smooth peanut butter, I’d like to use this column to introduce a liturgical music practice that we will be introducing across the board come Lent.  Click on title for full column.

I have no idea if it’s true or not, as I am not a doctor, but I have heard it said before that when broken bones heal, they grow back stronger in the place where they broke. Even if it’s not true (and I’m sure the medical professionals in the parish will educate me on this), it can certainly provide helpful inspiration for the moments when we face adversity and are overwhelmed by life’s challenges. We fall, we pick ourselves up, and we take another run at it; it’s the American way. It also emphasizes an important point that comes up throughout the scriptures, and that is that God’s power is made perfect in weakness.   Click on title for full column.

Today the Church celebrates the Second Sunday in ordinary time, which, confusingly, is actually the first Sunday we celebrate while wearing green vestments because of the Epiphany and Baptism of the Lord, but what can you do? Numerical oddities aside, this Sunday still provides us a great opportunity to set our hearts and minds on the mission of the Church and recommit to intentionally growing in our Faith this year. Click on title for full column.

The presence of Jesus Christ is being announced to the world—the Messiah is here! This is the core of the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord—encountering and announcing Jesus as the beloved Son of the Father: all for the salvation of souls and God’s glory. This is one of the reasons why I love prison ministry—I am blessed to see the announcement of Jesus’s mercy and love unfold before me. Being a witness to God working in and through souls, and, now I have been able to share it with all of you through two Pilgrimages of Mercy to Warren Correctional and the upcoming Serenelli Project visits (serenelliproject.org).  Click on title for full column.