Homily on the Spot

One of the interesting – and honestly, slightly unsettling – things about social media is realizing just how well the “algorithm” gets to know you.  At first, it’s kind of fun.  You watch one video about grilling steaks… suddenly every third video is someone smoking brisket. You watch one clip about restoring old Jeeps… now you’re apparently an expert mechanic. You ...

One of the things I’ve always loved about Jesus’ parables is how down-to-earth they are. He doesn’t talk over people’s heads—he uses stories about seeds, soil, lost coins, and sheep. Stuff ordinary people actually deal with. But the parable of the sower hits me a little differently.  For most of my life, gardening wasn’t even on my radar. At the Newman Catholic Center wh...

This weekend, our nation marks an extraordinary milestone: 250 years since the birth of the United States.A quarter of a millennium ago, in the sweltering heat of Philadelphia, a group of men gathered and did something that could have cost them everything. If the Revolution failed, they’d be branded traitors, likely hanged. Yet they signed their names anyway and told the worl...

About seventeen years ago, I was attending the FOCUS National Staff Training in Champaign Illinois.  FOCUS stands for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students.  That’s where I first met Father Mike Schmitz, long before his podcast The Bible in a Year made him one of the most recognizable Catholic voices in the world.   I remember hearing him prea...