Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. –Matthew
Read moreSaving Souls through Suffering
Help Me, My daughter, to save souls. Join your sufferings to My Passion and offer them to the Heavenly Father for sinners. –Jesus’ instruction to Saint Faustina (Diary #1032)– “Dad, can I drive the car?” This request did not spring from the lips of an eager adolescent with
Read moreMarriage!
Homily delivered on the 50th wedding anniversary of Anna Marie & Richard Culver 20 November 2015 Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chapel, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain
Read moreA Man’s Soul Is HIS Castle
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.” –Matthew 1:23– Some years ago, I was fortunate enough to travel in Scotland along with three other priest friends. As our rented minivan bumped along the highland
Read moreThe Luminaria Lighter or the Oblivious Boater?
You are the light of the world. –Matthew 5:14– Imagine you are setting up luminaria for Christmas Eve. You have carefully positioned dozens of alternating red and green paper bags along your driveway and sidewalk, each bag containing a little sand and one candle. Now the sun is down. You
Read moreIt’s About Time
For years now, we Christians have been told by the secular world that the use of the temporal designations “Anno Domini” (A.D.) and “Before Christ” (B.C.) is utterly insensitive to the feelings of those who do not happen to worship Jesus. Instead, we are all but forced to replace
Read moreIn Heaven, There Is No Marriage
For at the resurrection they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be as angels of God in heaven. –Matthew 22:30– What? No marriage in the afterlife? The greatest bond of love a man and woman can know on earth will not survive into the hereafter?
Read moreIt’s Lent. Don’t Give Up!
Another Lent is already upon us. It hardly seems possible. When we think of Lent, we usually think of “giving up” something. We ask each other, “What are you going to give up for Lent this year?” Yet I believe this approach somehow misses the mark. Lent is not a
Read more“I Am Involved in Mankinde”
I taught sophomores at Bethlehem Catholic High School for twenty-four years. To this day, I sometimes have doubts as to whether I accomplished anything at all through my teaching. Did my students learn anything from me? I am uncertain. Back in those days, it sometimes seemed that the only tangible
Read moreHOLY Is His Name
You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. For the Lord will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain. –Exodus 20:7 & Deuteronomy 5:11– [A]nd holy is his name. –Luke 1:49– Whenever family counselor Gary Smalley speaks, he is always engaging,
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