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.

One of the innumerable benefits of the Catholic Church is the fact that due to its lengthy history, there is almost always an example or historical precedent that we can look back to for guidance when trouble rears its ugly head. Even now, as we navigate the choppy waters of a pandemic, we can look to the Church’s witness of how she led her people through plagues and other turmoil. St. Charles Borromeo and many other saints have shone like bright lights in how they cared for their people and were forgetful of themselves when things seemed darkest. Click title for full column.

The first part of the Gospel for this weekend is forever etched into my mind. While it is certainly a beautiful and meaningful passage, the reason why I have it memorized is not because of a particular sentimental attachment to it, but because it has become the de facto Gospel reading for the funerals I celebrate. I could recite the first six verses from memory, in a pinch. But rarely do I have the opportunity to see it put in its broader context, and it stirred up in my heart a reflection on friendship and human nature. Click on title for full column.

I have a contrarian streak in me that serves as a useful defense against advertising techniques. Even if I normally would want to enjoy a particular product, seeing it advertised or pushed on me makes me exponentially less likely to buy it. It is either an Irish thing, or an American thing, or maybe just a my mom’s side of the family thing, but I chafe when I sense people putting pressure on me to be a consumer. Click title for full column.

One of my favorite pastimes associated with baseball is hotdogging during practice. At all levels of baseball, players do immensely stupid things during practice that they would never dare try in an actual game. Catching pop-ups behind one’s back, fancy (but incredibly risky) glove tricks, you name it. I remember repeatedly trying to roll throws from teammates off the back of my glove to try to get a quicker release. It’s something that middle infielders might occasionally use, but it was a completely useless skill for me. My coach caught me doing it and warned me that if I did it again I was going to be running. Out of force of habit, I tried once more, and the number of laps I took that day still haunts me. It was a valuable lesson that I had to learn about practicing like you’re supposed to play. If you wouldn’t try it in a game, don’t do it in practice, or at least not during official practice. It’s a time to get better, not a time to form bad habits that can hurt the team. Click title for full column.

The quarantine-driven stripping down of my usual activities has illuminated several things for me. It has shown me, and I suspect many others, what is truly valuable in life. It has shown many what they can do without. On the less impactful side, it has shown a few how many pushups they can do, and considerably more just how long they can go without showering. In ways both positive and negative, people are learning about their priorities and inclinations. Click title for full column.

Christ is risen, He is truly risen! Happy Easter, and God bless you all. I’ve always enjoyed looking back over Lent to see what fruit our sacrifices have born; it’s an experience of hope and renewal for the future, knowing that Our Lord will continue the good work that He has begun in us. This year has been a Lent unlike any other, and in many ways, even though we can now celebrate with the Risen Lord, we are still awaiting the fulness of joy that is celebrating with others and with our entire family. Click title for full column.

One of the phenomena I have observed during the drastically increasing amount of time I spend indoors with my housemates nowadays is the way in which each of us prefers to give and receive love. Personally, given my druthers, I would prefer to just completely isolate and wall myself off from the love and affection of everyone, but apparently that’s a no-go, so instead I’ve been seeing up close the way that people care for one another. Fr. Roush seems to be big on quality time. Fr. Feist uses words of affirmation often enough to make me prickly and defensive. I am doubling down on acts of service like resetting the chapel for Fr. Roush for his private Mass. All the while we watch for signs of cabin fever and the slow creep of insanity. With that as the backdrop of my day to day life, I have been reflecting on the meaning of love, especially loving our family and friends in moments of difficulty. Click title for full column.

It’s a fairly well-known Bible tidbit that the shortest verse in all of scripture, which is taken from this week’s Gospel, is “And Jesus wept.” Because it’s an interesting verse and it comes from an important passage in John’s Gospel, there has been much commentary on it throughout the years. It is often read at funerals and used to describe the very real, very human pain that Jesus felt at the death of His friend. But to take it simply as a sign of Jesus’ sadness over a death that He knew was not permanent is to miss a much larger point. Click title for full column.

A constant battle fought by priests, teachers, parents, and many others is the question of whether or not what we’re doing is really taking root. Some professions are not afforded the blessing of being able to take a step back at the end of the day and seeing the fruits of one’s labor. Looking at a parking lot that I just finished sealing or a bed of mulch that I just laid is one of the lost loves of my earlier years. Now the satisfaction of a job well done is not often seen until much later, if at all. Click title for full column.

One of my closest friends is a non-Catholic who married a lovely Catholic girl from my last parish. Because he works in a lab and is scientifically minded, he once commented to his wife that the sign of peace was quite the exercise in herd-immunity. When she pointed out that hundreds of people also drink from the same few cups at every Mass, he was even more impressed/concerned. Along these same lines, I have found in the last few years that every practical challenge in the Church seems to get entangled with a thousand political and pragmatic concerns. I remember as an associate doing something as simple as upgrading the patens we used to distribute the host turning into the beginning of a debacle, and it took the deft touch of the pastor to restore peace to the parish. So as the region undertakes some precautionary measures to curb potential spread of the coronavirus, which has recently been confirmed in Ohio, I think it’s important to do everything possible to hear people’s concerns as well as address the spiritual side of Communion distribution as well. Click title for full column

The difficult decision was made this morning to cancel all of the fish fries in the region this weekend and to consider future fish fry events cancelled until further notice. This was decided in the best interest of the health of our communities.