Written On Our Hearts

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." ~ Matthew 28:19  The Parable of the Lost Sheep is recorded in two different Gospel accounts; Matthew (18:10-14) and Luke (15:1-7). The central story of the shepherd leaving ninety-nine and searching for only one stray is the familiar common denominator, but the contexts which surround this story in each Gospel are very different and help us to learn different aspects about caring for those who are lost. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is teaching his disciples lessons about leadership, sin and how they should approach dealing with tough issues that arise in their ministry. It is for these reasons biblical scholars often call the eighteenth chapter of Matthew the “discourse on the church” or the “ecclesiastical discourse” (The Navarre Bible Standard Edition: Saint Matthew’s Gospel, 126). Jesus begins the parable saying, “ See that you do not...

He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; in Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the Church; He is the beginning, the first-born of the dead, that in everything He might be pre-eminent  ~ Colossians 1:15-18 It was an early spring Friday afternoon, my little brother and I got off the school bus and walked the familiar two blocks home. As we approached our house we could hear the sound of chainsaws and soon noticed a crew of so-called “landscaping professionals” just about finishing the removal of our neighbor's apple tree. While the roots of this particular tree were definitively on our neighbor's property, the branches hung over a fence by our vegetable garden providing some shade and blocked the view to an ugl...

“ It is better to be a kingmaker than king ” is one of my dad’s favorite sayings. There is a lot of wisdom in that statement if we can understand what my dad means by being a “kingmaker.” He doesn’t use the terms in the traditional sense meaning someone who is owed something for helping someone rise to power. His definition of “kingmaker” is a trusted servant of the king who aids and supports the king’s mission and message. His proximity and special relationship with the king stems ultimately because of his strong belief in the causes of the king. Because of the special closeness that this “kingmaker” shares with the king, he can use the authority granted to him by the king to advance the causes of the kingdom. The “kingmaker” as a loyal servant and aid, does not seek to increase his own renown, rather, he speaks on behalf of the king to further advance the king’s mission and plan for the kingdom. Because of this the king alone receives the praise and can shield his “kingmaker” from a...

Last year on Palm Sunday I attended Mass at my parish, St. Francis de Sales. At that time we had the privilege of having as our Pastor then “Bishop-elect” David Malloy. A few short weeks later, He became the Bishop of Rockford, but on Palm Sunday last year he was standing in the back of our church blessing the palm branches before the entrance procession wearing a zucchetto and pectoral cross. Certainly, I recognized the symbolism of the zucchetto as the crown of thorns signifying a bishop’s special closeness and participation in the Sacrifice of Christ as a successor of the Apostles. However, it was not His election to the Apostolic ranks or the privilege  of seeing a “Bishop-elect” celebrate Mass that stood out the most. After the entrance procession, before the opening collect, Bishop Malloy made a comment that has stuck with me. He said “ think about what we have just done, for a moment we gave God perfect and pure praise - God is pleased ;” Mass then continued normally with no...