Reshaping Fatherhood

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent, March 19th, 2015
Solemnity of St. Joseph

Liturgical texts here

 

FATHERHOOD is one of the most amazing gifts from God. And it’s time we men truly reclaim it for what it is: an opportunity to reflect the very face of the Heavenly Father.

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Not On My Own

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent, March 18th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

father-and-son2

 

THE whole of Jesus’ life consisted in this: doing the will of the Heavenly Father. What is remarkable is that, even though Jesus is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, He still does absolutely nothing on His own:

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When the Spirit Comes

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent, March 17th, 2015
St. Patrick’s Day

Liturgical texts here

 

THE Holy Spirit.

Have you met this Person yet? There is the Father and the Son, yes, and it is easy for us to imagine them because of Christ’s face and the image of fatherhood. But the Holy Spirit… what, a bird? No, the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, and the one who, when He comes, makes all the difference in the world.

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It is Living!

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent, March 16th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

WHEN the official comes to Jesus and asks Him to heal his son, the Lord replies:

“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” (Today’s Gospel)

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Why Aren’t the Popes Shouting?

 

With dozens of new subscribers coming on board now each week, old questions are popping up such as this one: Why aren’t the Pope’s speaking about the end times? The answer will surprise many, reassure others, and challenge many more. First published September 21st, 2010, I have updated this writing to the present pontificate. 

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Opening Wide the Doors of Mercy

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Saturday of the Third Week of Lent, March 14th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

Due to the surprise announcement by Pope Francis yesterday, today’s reflection is slightly longer. However, I think you will find its contents worth reflecting on…

 

THERE is a certain sense building, not only among my readers, but also of mystics with whom I’ve been privileged to be in contact with, that the next few years are significant. Yesterday in my daily Mass meditation, [1]cf. Sheathing the Sword I wrote how Heaven itself has revealed that this present generation is living in a “time of mercy.” As if to underline this divine warning (and it is a warning that humanity is on borrowed time), Pope Francis announced yesterday that Dec. 8th, 2015 to Nov. 20th, 2016 will be a “Jubilee of Mercy.” [2]cf. Zenit, March 13th, 2015 When I read this announcement, the words from St. Faustina’s diary came immediately to mind:

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Footnotes

Footnotes
1 cf. Sheathing the Sword
2 cf. Zenit, March 13th, 2015

Sheathing the Sword

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Friday of the Third Week of Lent, March 13th, 2015

Liturgical texts here


The Angel atop St. Angelo’s Castle in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy

 

THERE is a legendary account of a pestilence that broke out in Rome in 590 A.D. due to a flood, and Pope Pelagius II was one of its numerous victims. His successor, Gregory the Great, ordered that a procession should go around the city for three consecutive days, imploring God’s help against the disease.

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The Progression of Totalitarianism

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Thursday of the Third Week of Lent, March 12th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

Damiano_Mascagni_Joseph_Sold_Into_Slavery_by_His_Brothers_FotorJoseph Sold Into Slavery by His Brothers by Damiano Mascagni (1579-1639)

 

WITH the death of logic, we are not far from when not only truth, but Christians themselves, will be banished from the public sphere (and it’s already begun). At least, this is the warning from the seat of Peter:

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The Death of Logic

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent, March 11th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

spock-original-series-star-trek_Fotor_000.jpgCourtesy Universal Studios

 

LIKE watching a train wreck in slow-motion, so it is watching the death of logic in our times (and I’m not speaking of Spock).

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Pray More, Speak Less

praymorespeakless2

 

I could have written this for the past week. First published 

THE Synod on the family in Rome last autumn was the beginning of a firestorm of attacks, assumptions, judgments, grumbling, and suspicions against Pope Francis. I set everything aside, and for several weeks responded to reader’s concerns, media distortions, and most especially distortions of fellow Catholics that simply needed to be addressed. Thanks be to God, many people stopped panicking and started praying, started reading more of what the Pope was actually saying rather than what the headlines were. For indeed, Pope Francis’ colloquial style, his off-the-cuff remarks that reflect a man who is more comfortable with street-talk than theological-speak, has required greater context.

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The Key to Opening God's Heart

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent, March 10th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

THERE is a key to God’s heart, a key that can be held by anyone from the greatest sinner to the greatest saint. With this key, the heart of God can be opened, and not only His heart, but the very treasuries of Heaven.

And that key is humility.

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Stubborn and Blind

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Monday of the Third Week of Lent, March 9th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

IN truth, we are surrounded by the miraculous. You have to be blind—spiritually blind—not to see it. But our modern world has become so skeptical, so cynical, so stubborn that not only do we doubt that supernatural miracles are possible, but when they do happen, we still doubt!

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The Surprise Welcome

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Saturday of the Second Week of Lent, March 7th, 2015
First Saturday of the Month

Liturgical texts here

 

THREE minutes in a pig barn, and your clothes are done for the day. Imagine the prodigal son, hanging out with swine, feeding them day after day, too poor to even buy a change of clothes. I have no doubt that the father would have smelled his son returning home before he saw him. But when the father did see him, something amazing happened…

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The Right Spiritual Steps

Steps_Fotor

 

THE RIGHT SPIRITUAL STEPS:

Your Duty in

God’s Imminent Plan of Holiness

Through His Mother

by Anthony Mullen

 

YOU have been drawn to this website to be prepared: the ultimate preparation is to be really and truly transformed into Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Spiritual Motherhood and Triumph of Mary our Mother, and the Mother of our God.  The preparation for the Storm is simply one (but important) part in the preparation for your “New & Divine Holiness” that St. John Paul II prophesized would occur “to make Christ the Heart of the world.”

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God Will Never Give Up

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Friday of the Second Week of Lent, March 6th, 2015

Liturgical texts here


Rescued By Love, by Darren Tan

 

THE parable of the tenants in the vineyard, who murder the landowners servants and even his son is, of course, symbolic of centuries of prophets that the Father sent to the people of Israel, culminating in Jesus Christ, His only Son. All of them were rejected.

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Bearers of Love

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Thursday of the Second Week of Lent, March 5th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

TRUTH without charity is like a blunt sword that cannot pierce the heart. It might cause people to feel pain, to duck, to think, or step away from it, but Love is what sharpens truth such that it becomes a living word of God. You see, even the devil can quote Scripture and produce the most elegant apologetics. [1]cf. Matt 4;1-11 But it is when that truth is transmitted in the power of the Holy Spirit that it becomes…

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Footnotes

Footnotes
1 cf. Matt 4;1-11

Servants of the Truth

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent, March 4th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

Ecce HomoEcce Homo, by Michael D. O’Brien

 

JESUS was not crucified for His charity. He was not scourged for healing paralytics, opening the eyes of the blind, or raising the dead. So too, rarely will you find Christians being sidelined for building a women’s shelter, feeding the poor, or visiting the sick. Rather, Christ and His body, the Church, were and are persecuted essentially for proclaiming the truth.

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Weeding Out Sin

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent, March 3rd, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

WHEN it comes to weeding out sin this Lent, we cannot divorce mercy from the Cross, nor the Cross from mercy. Today’s readings are a powerful blend of both…

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Mercy for a People in Darkness

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Monday of the Second Week of Lent, March 2nd, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

THERE is a line from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings that, among others, jumped out at me when the character Frodo wishes for the death of his adversary, Gollum. The wise wizard Gandalf responds:

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The Way of Contradiction

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Saturday of the First Week of Lent, February 28th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

I listened to Canada’s state radio broadcaster, the CBC, on the ride home last night. The host of the show interviewed “astonished” guests who could not believe that a Canadian Member of Parliament admitted to “not believing in evolution” (which usually means that one believes that creation came into existence by God, not aliens or the implausible odds atheists have put their faith in). The guests went on to highlight their unflinching devotion to not only evolution but global warming, vaccinations, abortion, and gay marriage —including the “Christian” on the panel. “Anyone who questions the science really is not fit for public office,” said one guest to that effect.

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The Coming Prodigal Moment

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Friday of the First Week of Lent, February 27th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

The Prodigal Son 1888 by John Macallan Swan 1847-1910The Prodigal Son, by John Macallen Swan, 1888 (Tate Collection, London)

 

WHEN Jesus told the parable of the “prodigal son”, [1]cf. Luke 15:11-32 I believe He was also giving a prophetic vision of the end times. That is, a picture of how the the world would be welcomed into the Father’s house through Christ’s Sacrifice… but eventually reject Him again. That we would take our inheritance, that is, our free will, and over the centuries blow it on the kind of unbridled paganism we have today. Technology is the new golden calf.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
1 cf. Luke 15:11-32

The Incurable Evil

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Thursday of the First Week of Lent, February 26th, 2015

Liturgical texts here


The Intercession of Christ and the Virgin, attributed to Lorenzo Monaco, (1370–1425)

 

WHEN we speak of a “last chance” for the world, it is because we are talking about an “incurable evil.” Sin has so entwined itself in men’s affairs, so corrupted the very foundations of not only economics and politics but also the food chain, medicine, and the environment, that nothing short of cosmic surgery [1]cf. The Cosmic Surgery is necessary. As the Psalmist says,

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Footnotes

Footnotes
1 cf. The Cosmic Surgery

The Most Important Prophecy

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Wednesday of the First Week of Lent, February 25th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

THERE is a lot of chatter today about when this or that prophecy will be fulfilled, particularly over the next few years. But I frequently ponder on the fact that tonight might be my last night on earth, and so, for me, I find the race to “know the date” superfluous at best. I often smile when I think of that story of St. Francis who, while gardening, was asked: “What would you do if you knew the world would end today?” He replied, “I suppose I would finish hoeing this row of beans.” Herein lies the wisdom of Francis: the duty of the moment is the will of God. And God’s will is a mystery, most especially when it comes to time.

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On Earth as in Heaven

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Tuesday of the First Week of Lent, February 24th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

PONDER again these words from today’s Gospel:

…thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Now listen carefully to the first reading:

So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.

If Jesus gave us this “word” to pray daily to our Heavenly Father, then one must ask whether or not His Kingdom and His Divine Will shall be on earth as it is in heaven? Whether or not this “word” we have been taught to pray will achieve its end… or simply return void? The answer, of course, is that these words of the Lord will indeed accomplish their end and will…

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The Great Adventure

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Monday of the First Week of Lent, February 23rd, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

IT is from a total and complete abandonment to God that something beautiful happens: all those securities and attachments that you clung desperately to, but leave in His hands, are exchanged for the supernatural life of God. It is hard to see from a human perspective. It often looks about as beautiful as a butterfly still in a cocoon. We see nothing but darkness; feel nothing but the old self; hear nothing but the echo of our weakness steadily ringing in our ears. And yet, if we persevere in this state of total surrender and trust before God, the extraordinary happens: we become co-workers with Christ.

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Me?

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Saturday after Ash Wednesday, February 21st, 2015

Liturgical texts here

come-follow-me_Fotor.jpg

 

IF you really stop to think about it, to really absorb what just happened in today’s Gospel, it should revolutionize your life.

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Healing the Wound of Eden

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Friday after Ash Wednesday, February 20th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

thewound_Fotor_000.jpg

 

THE animal kingdom is essentially content. Birds are content. Fish are content. But the human heart is not. We are restless and unsatisfied, constantly searching for fulfillment in myriad forms. We are in an endless pursuit of pleasure as the world spins its advertisements promising happiness, but delivering only pleasure—fleeting pleasure, as if that were an end in itself. Why then, after buying the lie, do we inevitably continue seeking, searching, hunting for meaning and worth?

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Going Against the Current

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Thursday after Ash Wednesday, February 19th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

against the tide_Fotor

 

IT is pretty clear, even by a mere cursory glance at the news headlines, that much of the first world is in a free-fall into unbridled hedonism while the rest of the world is increasingly threatened and scourged by regional violence. As I wrote a few years ago, the time of warning has virtually expired. [1]cf. The Last Hour If one cannot perceive the “signs of the times” by now, then the only word left is the “word” of suffering. [2]cf. The Watchman’s Song

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Footnotes

The Joy of Lent!

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Ash Wednesday, February 18th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

ash-wednesday-faces-of-the-faithful

 

ASHES, sackcloth, fasting, penance, mortification, sacrifice… These are the common themes of Lent. So who would think of this penitential season as a time of joy? Easter Sunday? Yes, joy! But the forty days of penance?

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The Gentle Coming of Jesus

A Light to the Gentiles by Greg Olsen

 

WHY did Jesus come to earth as He did—clothing His divine nature in the DNA, chromosomes, and genetic heritage of the woman, Mary? For Jesus could very well have simply materialized in the desert, entered immediately upon forty days of temptation, and then emerged in the Spirit for His three year ministry. But instead, He chose to walk in our footsteps from the very first instance of His human life. He chose to become little, helpless, and weak, for…

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Returning to Our Center

offcourse_Fotor

 

WHEN a ship goes off course by only a degree or two, it is barely noticeable until several hundred nautical miles later. So too, the Barque of Peter has likewise veered somewhat off course over the centuries. In the words of Blessed Cardinal Newman:

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The Jaws of the Red Dragon

SUPREME COURTThe Supreme Court Justices of Canada

 

IT was a strange convergence this past weekend. All week long at my concerts, as a preamble to my song Call Your Name (listen below), I felt compelled to speak about how truth is being turned upside down in our day; how good is being called evil, and evil good. I noted how “judges are getting up in the morning, having their coffee and cereal like the rest of us, and then go into work—and completely overturn the Natural Moral Law that has existed since time memorial.” Little did I realize that the Supreme Court of Canada was planning to issue a ruling last Friday that opens the door for doctors to help kill someone with a ‘grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability)’.

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My Young Priests, Be Not Afraid!

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Wednesday, February 4th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

ord-prostration_Fotor

 

AFTER Mass today, the words came strongly to me:

My young priests, do not be afraid! I have put you in place, like seeds scattered among fertile soil. Do not be afraid to preach My Name! Do not be afraid to speak the truth in love. Do not be afraid if My Word, through you, causes a sifting of your flock…

As I shared these thoughts over coffee with a courageous African priest this morning, he nodded his head. “Yes, we priests often want to please everyone rather than preach the truth… we have let the lay faithful down.”

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Jesus, the Goal

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Wednesday, February 4th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

DISCIPLINE, mortification, fasting, sacrifice… these are words that tend to make us cringe because we associate them with pain. However, Jesus did not. As St. Paul wrote:

For the sake of the joy that lay before him, Jesus endured the cross… (Heb 12:2)

The difference between a Christian monk and a Buddhist monk is precisely this: the end for the Christian is not the mortification of his senses, or even peace and serenity; rather it is God himself. Anything less is falling short of fulfillment as much as throwing a rock in the sky falls short of hitting the moon. Fulfillment for the Christian is to allow God to possess him that he may possess God. It is this union of hearts that transforms and restores the soul into the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity. But even the most profound union with God can also be accompanied by a dense darkness, spiritual dryness, and sense of abandonment—just as Jesus, though in complete conformity to the Father’s will, experienced abandonment on the Cross.

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Touching Jesus

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015
Opt. Memorial St. Blaise

Liturgical texts here

 

MANY Catholics go to Mass every Sunday, join the Knights of Columbus or CWL, put a few bucks in the collection basket, etc. But their faith never really deepens; there is no real transformation of their hearts more and more into holiness, more and more into Our Lord himself, such that they can begin to say with St. Paul, “yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.” [1]cf. Gal 2:20

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Footnotes

Footnotes
1 cf. Gal 2:20

The Summit

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Thursday, January 29th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

THE Old Testament is more than a book telling the story of salvation history, but a shadow of things to come. The temple of Solomon was but a type of the temple of Christ’s body, the means by which we could enter into the “Holy of holies”—the very presence of God. St. Paul’s explanation of the new Temple in today’s first reading is explosive:

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Living in the Divine Will

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Monday, January 27th, 2015
Opt. Memorial for St. Angela Merici

Liturgical texts here

 

TODAY’s Gospel is often used to argue that Catholics have invented or exaggerated the significance of the motherhood of Mary.

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

But then who lived the will of God more completely, more perfectly, more obediently than Mary, after her Son? From the moment of the Annunciation [1]and since her birth, since Gabriel says she was “full of grace” until standing beneath the Cross (while others fled), no one quietly lived out the will of God more perfectly. That is to say that no one was more of a mother to Jesus, by His own definintion, than this Woman.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
1 and since her birth, since Gabriel says she was “full of grace”

Fruits and Thoughts

 

ONE day to go before, what is now, a twenty-date concert tour begins. I am excited, because I sensed when my latest album was produced, that these songs would begin healing in many souls. Then along came Pope Francis calling the Church to become a “field hospital” for the wounded. [1]cf. The Field Hospital And so, on Tuesday my wife and I are setting up the first “field hospital” in our ministry as we begin a journey through the prairie province of Saskatchewan. Please pray for us and especially for all those that Jesus wants to heal and minister to.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
1 cf. The Field Hospital

The Black Ship – Part II

 

WARS and rumors of wars… And yet, Jesus said these would only be “the beginning of the birth-pangs.” [1]cf. Matt 24:8 What, then, could possibly be the hard labor? Jesus answers:

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. (Matt 24:9-11)

Yes, the violent death of the body is a travesty, but the death of the soul is a tragedy. The hard labor is the great spiritual struggle that is here and coming…

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Footnotes

Footnotes
1 cf. Matt 24:8

Mark Mallett in Concert, Winter 2015

 

Among the reasons why one would have a “heart of stone,” [is that someone] has gone through a “painful experience.” The heart, when it is hardened, is not free and if it is not free it is because it does not love…
—POPE FRANCIS, Homily, Jan. 9th, 2015, Zenit

 

WHEN I produced my last album, “Vulnerable”, I put together a collection of songs I’ve written that speak of the ‘painful experiences’ that many of us have gone through: death, family breakup, betrayal, loss… and then God’s response to it. It is, for me, one of the most moving albums I’ve created, not only for the content of the words, but also for the incredible emotion that the musicians, backup singers, and orchestra brought to the studio.

And now, I feel it is time to take this album on the road so that many, whose hearts have been hardened by their own painful experiences, can perhaps be softened by the love of Christ. This first tour is through Saskatchewan, Canada this Winter.

There are no tickets or fees, so everyone can come (a free-will offering will be taken up). I hope to meet many of you there…

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Be Faithful

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Friday, January 16th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

 

THERE is so much happening in our world, so quickly, that it can be overwhelming. There is so much suffering, adversity, and busyness in our lives that it can be discouraging. There is so much dysfunction, societal breakdown, and division that it can be numbing. In fact, the world’s rapid descent into darkness in these times has left many fearful, despairing, paranoid… paralyzed.

But the answer to all this, brothers and sisters, is to simply be faithful.

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Do Not Be Shaken

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for January 13th, 2015
Opt. Memorial of St. Hilary

Liturgical texts here

 

WE have entered a period of time in the Church that will shake the faith of many. And that is because it is going to increasingly appear as though evil has won, as though the Church has become completely irrelevant, and in fact, an enemy of the State. Those who hold fast to the whole of the Catholic faith will be few in number and be universally considered antiquated, illogical, and an obstacle to be removed.

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Losing Our Children

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for January 5th-10th, 2015
of the Epiphany

Liturgical texts here

 

I have had countless parents come up to me in person or write me saying, “I don’t understand. We took our children to Mass every Sunday. My kids would pray the Rosary with us. They would go to spiritual functions… but now, they’ve all left the Church.”

The question is why? As a parent of eight children myself, the tears of these parents has sometimes haunted me. Then why not my kids? In truth, every one of us has free will. There is no forumla, per se, that if you do this, or say that prayer, that the outcome is sainthood. No, sometimes the outcome is atheism, as I’ve seen in my own extended family.

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Antichrist in Our Times

 

First published January 8th, 2015…

 

SEVERAL weeks ago, I wrote that it is time for me ‘to speak directly, boldly, and without apology to the “remnant” who are listening. It is only a remnant of readers now, not because they are special, but chosen; it is a remnant, not because all are not invited, but few respond….’ [1]cf. The Convergence and the Blessing That is, I have spent ten years writing about the times we live in, constantly referencing Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium so as to bring balance to a discussion that perhaps too frequently relies only on private revelation. Nonetheless, there are some who simply feel any discussion of the “end times” or the crises we face is too gloomy, negative, or fanatical—and so they simply delete and unsubscribe. So be it. Pope Benedict was pretty straightforward about such souls:

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Footnotes