The Nativity of Mary: A “Joyful Prelude” to Our Salvation. Happy Birthday Mama Mary!
“This is the highest, all-embracing benefit that Christ has bestowed on us. This is the revelation of the mystery, this is the emptying out of the divine nature, the union of God and man, and the deification of the manhood that was assumed. This radiant and manifest coming of God to men most certainly needed…
A Brief Comment on the Church in Africa
In light of the recent consistory and election of new cardinals, of which two were from Africa, the page below has some good figures of the number of cardinals from Africa and, in particular, Nigeria. 27 African cardinals in total, the 3rd largest bloc of cardinals of all the regions of the world. One of…
My First Act of Public Preaching!
This past Saturday evening I performed my official first act of public preaching! I was invited to the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in my diocese this weekend for their parish novena leading up to the Solemnity of the Assumption. Their novena ended yesterday and it involved a sermon on a…
Same church. Same cassock. Same beard. Different summer.
Been 3 years and now back at the same parish where I spent my first ever seminarian summer assignment, Our Lady of the Lake in Hendersonville, TN in my diocese. This time 3 weeks instead of 2 months but I will be back for Christmas and Holy Week next year. (Left: 2019/Right: Now) And way…
9 Years Ago This Day I “Crossed the Tiber”
“You are Peter, and upon this Rock I will build My Church” 9 years ago this day I “crossed the Tiber” and converted to the Catholic Church to be in union with Rome. This year I literally crossed the Tiber River and saw the universal seat of unity upon which Christ built His Church in…
Juneteenth and the Body and Blood of Christ
Juneteenth is the “oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States when Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.” This year it had the happy occurrence of falling on the same…
A Summer in Italy! – Rome Experience: Florence
Last week I began part 1 of my summer assignment on a program called the Rome Experience. This program involves traveling to Florence, Bracciano, and Rome, Italy/Vatican to see the beauty, history, and inner life and workings of the heart of the Church. The past week we were in Florence and saw many of the…
4 Down, 2 To Go: Second Theology Year of Seminary Complete!
Last week I came home, turned in one last (late) assignment, and completed my second theology year of seminary! That makes 4 years of seminary complete and only 2 more to go. This past year was the last one that I will begin as a layman and end as a layman. This marks a crucial…
Evil Begets Evil and Sin Begets Sin: The Buffalo Tops Friendly Market Shooting
The local sheriff called the racist-motivated Tops shooting “pure evil.” He was right to describe it as such because we can never stress enough that just as the murder of the innocent is pure evil, racism is also pure evil. Evil begets evil and sin begets sin. The evil and sin of racism that was…
Expect to be Loved, But also Expect the Truth: In Light of Recent Pro-Choice Protests at Masses
I don’t know how many pro-choice protests that were reportedly going take place at Masses this Sunday actually happened, but try as some might to come to heart of our Catholic life that is the Mass and interrupt it, one thing is true (since some targeted Catholic churches). The Gospel of Life proclaimed by Jesus…