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Hey there, Catholic friend, I see you. You were brought up with CCD and necco wafer communion and mass. You gave up candy for Lent, ate fish sticks on Fridays, and know the meaning of a Holy Day of Obligation (get thyself to church). Your grandmother or some other sweet church lady used to pray the rosary…
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Essential
In this time of crisis, we’re being stripped of quite a lot. Roles, practices, relational habits and interaction, labels, even jobs or our health. In addition, the way we practice our faith has completely changed. Within my own church tradition, Catholics are being told we can confess our sins directly to God without a priest…
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Fr. Joe
Our friend Fr. Joe Callahan passed from this life on Easter morning. He was the spiritual director of our retreat house, and had held that position for almost twenty years, affecting the lives of hundreds and hundreds of people who lived cursillo and other retreats at the house. When I heard the news, I did…
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Mud
I am driving my priest friend crazy. I come to him with the things I need fixed and I ask why God won’t fix them, and he comes back with the whole “free will” thing, and I wonder why in the world I am even praying, and say I need an all-powerful God, and my…
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Mystery
A mysterious thing happened today. Absolutely wrecked by a hacking case of bronchitis, I sang through an entire funeral Mass for a gathered group of family and friends. I didn’t want my illness to draw attention from what the bereaved were there to do, and so before I began, I just asked God to sing…
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Best Worst Mass
“That was the best worst Mass,” my daughter said at the conclusion of a morning that was filled with mistakes. And she was right. As music ministers during the busy Advent season, we grapple with new Mass parts and seasonal music and we do our best to bring a prayerful spirit to what we…
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Alternate Reality
Last night at dinner, my son asked if we had ever considered the possibility that each of us was the only person who had ever existed and that everyone and everything else in history was a figment of our imagination. My daughter replied that she hadn’t had that particular thought, but had pondered whether we…