When I was discerning seminary, there was a platitude that I heard from almost every priest and seminarian I had the chance to talk to that I didn’t believe even for a second. Whenever I asked about the challenges and sacrifices in the life of a priest, the vast majority of them said that it isn’t celibacy that proves to be the biggest challenge; it’s obedience. I wrote it off as nonsense. Sure, it must be tough to not always have the final say in where you go or what you do, but that can’t possibly compare to giving up having a wife and kids, right? Click title for full column.

After my talk about voting as Catholics during the Faith Formation Friday on September 4, I thought a more extended, organized, and precise written exhortation may be a helpful conscience formation aid for November. This article provides a two-fold approach—first, general Catholic conscience formation principles and, second, a resource guide for references to Church documents on key issues for diving deeper into the research. Click title for full column.

I consider myself the world’s foremost authority on my own bad habits. To name a few, I enjoy cigars, I definitely don’t get as much sleep as I should, I loathe all non-competitive exercise (so I don’t get any), and left to my own devices, I would probably eat enough nutty bars to put me into a coma. But perhaps worse than any of these is my propensity to hold onto grudges. My exaggerated sense of justice has caused me to not so silently log away every injustice over the course of my life and hold onto it for the sake of proving how everyone has wronged me in every way imaginable. From the time my brother threw my lucky buffalo nickel out the car window to every skirmish with various downtown offices, I sometimes think that the most prominent drive in my life is for vengeance masquerading as justice. Truth be told, I sometimes watch YouTube videos of umpires blowing calls just to get myself fired up, and if that’s not a sickness, I don’t know what is. Click title for full column.

I have said it before and will no doubt say it again, if someone were to personally design a purgatory (or worse) suited specifically to me, it would no doubt be centered around reading internet comment boxes all day. A few weeks ago I wrote about a new Vatican instruction concerning parish life and leadership. I found much of it to be a necessary call to review the way we have always done things and put our resources towards evangelizing an ever-changing world. But this week I read a myriad of comments from folks around the country who saw the document differently, and my heart sank. Click title for full column.

I may be the only person in the world who has a devotion to the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle A. I’ll admit it, I’m weird, but I do have a legitimate reason! Have you ever experienced indecision about a big life choice? I went through a long period of denial and running away from the priestly vocation in high school. Then these readings hit me like a 2x4 to the face. On this same Sunday back in the fall of 2008, during my junior year of high school, it became clear to me that I would continue to run in circles discerning the priesthood until I finally admitted to myself that I needed to go to the one place that would actually facilitate my discernment—college seminary. Click title for full column.

The Gospel this Sunday contains the famous scene that is commemorated in the mosaic at our Cathedral (newly named a Basilica!) when Our Lord hands over the keys of the kingdom to St. Peter, symbolically giving him authority over the Church, the people of God. It is a moving scene, and I have always found great solace in the life and transformation of St. Peter. Throughout the Gospel, we see him making many mistakes, almost always with his mouth about ten steps out in front of his brain. Even after his bitter failure and regret in denying Jesus three times, he still finds his way back to Our Lord to receive forgiveness and be given great responsibility in leading others to salvation. As a foolhardy pastor, I take great comfort in St. Peter as my patron and confirmation saint. Click title for full column.

It is hard to believe it has already been a month and a half since I joined all of you at the WWPR! It has definitely been a joy to be here. Just as Christ was held in the most precious arms of our Immaculate Mother, so to do we need to give our Lord His due when He comes to us in the Eucharist. Upon ordination, a priest receives a chalice—typically from a parish, a private donor, or as a present from his family. This incredible gift is what the priest uses while offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to Consecrate the Most Holy Blood of Jesus Christ. Definitely not a trivial thing! Click title for full column.

As a former catcher, I can say that there are few relationships that rely more heavily on trust than the one between battery-mates on the baseball diamond. Maybe I’m biased in this regard, but I am of the opinion that the pitcher should listen to his catcher ninety-nine percent of the time. I am a non-confrontational person by nature, but there have been at least a few times when I had to walk out to the mound and explain to the pitcher that I was not going to allow him to throw his stupid curveball that he couldn’t locate all day when there is an important run waiting on third base. In different circumstances, maybe, but not when it counts. Click title for full column.

We are approaching three years since my dad passed away, and I have been thinking about all the difficult and beautiful lessons that I have learned through that process of grieving. Some have been about working through grief and others have been about relying on the support of those who care. But one unpleasant lesson learned in the wake of Dad’s death verified an important truth that the Archbishop gave during the homily at a friend’s ordination. He told those being ordained that their ministry would not be one of convenience, and it would not happen on their terms. In other words, people need help when they need help, and in the same way that kids don’t plan their emergencies around their parents’ schedules, the people of God and their needs occasionally intrude into personally difficult situations. In my case, the day after my dad died, someone stuck a post it note on my office mailbox expressing their condolences and asking me to finish some paperwork for them because “they aren’t getting any younger.”  Click on title for full column.

Forgive me if you’ve heard me ramble about this before, but one of my favorite things that I have learned about ministry as a pastor (and not just as a carefree vicar, like Fr. Jeff…) is that a parish budget is a fundamentally theological document. Archbishop Schnurr, himself a man trained in finances, says that the quickest way to find out what is important in a parish is to take a look at where they are spending their money. If it is truly important to them, they will back it up with resources. If it isn’t, they won’t. Simple as that. Click title for full column.

One of the spiritual dangers which I consistently run headlong into is comparing myself to others. I caution people against it in the confessional almost every week, but rarely does a day go by that I do not find myself slipping into the same fault. It is a double-edged sword because there is really no positive outcome to it. Either you seem to be better than someone else, in which case you run the risk of pride, vanity, and complacency, or you seem to be worse, in which case we stray towards despair. Neither one is a helpful path towards true conversion. I found this to be the case about a year ago when Fr. Eric and Fr. Matt were moving in. Before their arrival, I had been working towards being less obsessive about my book obsession and organization as well as the proliferation of whiskey collecting. Then, as soon as they were done unpacking, I was able to excuse my own habits because I will never out-book Fr. Roush, and Fr. Feist has quite the bourbon library. Click title for full column.

One of my favorite philosophical reads is “After Virtue”, written by Alasdair MacIntyre, in 1981. I won’t bore you with my pretentious philosophical musings, but the first chapters of the book take up a theme that has been growing increasingly relevant as the years go on. Almost forty years ago, Professor MacIntyre posited that society had lost its ability to carry on meaningful moral discourse, because we have abandoned our understanding that things have a meaning and a purpose in themselves. In other words, because we no longer recognize that life, and the body, or anything for that matter, have a specific end or goal written into their design, we cannot truly debate with one another. The best we can do is work backwards to our original moral assumptions, and then scream at each other loudly until someone backs down. It is both alarming, prophetic, and even more true today than it was forty years ago. Click title for full column.

WWPR Parishioners! I hope that this finds you all doing well! I am thrilled to be joining you all as your parochial vicar this July while working alongside the pastor, Fr. McCullough. In a certain sense it is a home coming because I was baptized at St. James on June 28, 1992, and it is still the home parish of my grandfather, Dr. John Albers. It is good to be coming home! Click title for full column.

Every priest, and every leader, for that matter, brings their own personal gifts, skills, and interests into their roles. Conversely, they also carry with them their weaknesses and proclivity for rookie mistakes in certain fields that they must both work on and surround themselves with people who can bridge the gap for them. In my first two years here in the region, I counted myself lucky to have inherited a region rather than having to implement it as the first pastor after the regionalization. The hard work necessary to bring multiple parish offices and staffs together had been done before me, by Fr. Chris, a man who was far more experienced in that aspect of leadership than I was. It freed me up to focus on more of the spiritual elements than I could have if that had been my cross to carry. Click title for full column.

Six years ago, I was so excited for my assignment to the Winton Wyoming Pastoral Region that began on July 1, 2014. Now, at the end of the two- term assignment this June, I look back and I thank the Lord for the amazing experience I had in our region. Also, I am praying for all the people that I have encountered during my ministry and for all those I will meet in my new assignment at St. Aloysius Gonzaga and St. Jude parishes. Living and working within the WWPR was a unique experience that touched my life tremendously. So, I want to say “thank you” to God and to all. Click title for full column.

Drive- through Farewell for Fr. Lambert This Sunday! As many of you may know, Fr. Lambert has been reassigned to St. Jude and St. Aloysius Gonzaga beginning July 1. As Fr. McCullough said last week, we are deeply sorry that we cannot have a bigger and more grandiose celebration for Fr. Lambert’s departure, but for the time being, please join us for a drive-through farewell at St. Matthias this Sunday, June 21 starting at 5:00 pm.

We live in an age that tends to emphasize activity over contemplation. It’s not unique to our current age; history is riddled with times when regimes and societies have destroyed or ostracized individuals or groups who were labeled as freeloaders or “unproductive.” Contemplative nuns were literally dragged out of their convents and into forced labor in the aftermath of Henry VIII’s break from the Church, so all things considered, maybe things nowadays could be worse. But the fact remains that we often tend to appreciate things that people do for us more than we do their existence in and of itself. Click title for full column.

5th Annual Feast of Corpus Christi Procession Next Sunday, June 14, we will be celebrating the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. We will begin with Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary at 9:00 am and then process with the Blessed Sacrament displayed in a monstrance around the Greenhills Commons. We will stop at the gazebo for some time of Eucharistic adoration, Scripture, reflection, and prayer. We will then process back to the church for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Click title for full column.

The sad truth about the greatest gifts in our lives is that we rarely appreciate them until we lose them. Even if we are grateful for them while we have them, often we do not fully understand how much we’ll miss them until they are gone. I always loved my dad, and I knew I would miss him when he was gone. That said, I had no idea how much I would associate terrible jokes with his memory once he was no longer with us in this life. It is cliché to say, as the song does, “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone,” but it also seems that it’s almost impossible to know how much we’ll miss something until we carry that cross. Click title for full column.

In lieu of a regular column, this week I will be answering some frequently asked questions as we prepare for the resumption of public Masses on May 25. God bless you all, and stay safe! Prayers always, Fr. McC Click title for full column.