Category: Daily Post
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I have been sitting with something Paul writes to Titus about picking leaders for the church. He does not start with preaching ability or a theology degree. He starts with a man’s own house. Blameless, faithful to his wife, and one line that stops me every time, with children who believe (Titus 1:6). Paul is…
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This month I’ve been building on Scripture, then the sacraments, and now I want to turn to prayer itself, not just doing it, but paying attention to what I’m actually doing when I kneel down and start talking. There’s a moment in Luke’s Gospel that’s been sitting with me. The disciples watch Jesus pray, and…
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This week has been confession and the Eucharist, two sacraments I used to think of as separate errands. Go get forgiven, go get fed, check the boxes, move on with the day. There’s a verse I keep landing on instead. “Taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8). Not think about, not agree…
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This week I’ve been sitting with confession and the Eucharist, two sacraments that ask more of me than I expected when I first started paying attention. A stranger in a small room who somehow stands in for Christ when I confess what I’ve done. Bread and wine that are somehow not just bread and wine.…
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For a long time I figured confession was a Catholic add-on, something extra layered on top of what mattered, which was just being honest with God directly. He already knows everything I’ve done. Why would I need to say it out loud to a priest first. What changed my mind wasn’t an argument, it was…
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There’s a habit I keep meaning to build and keep letting slide. Before bed, just ten minutes, going back through the day and actually looking at it. Not replaying it to feel bad, just looking. I found the practice in the Church’s own tradition, an old one, going back to St. Ignatius. Sit somewhere quiet.…
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I read something this week from St. John Vianney, the parish priest they now call the Cure of Ars, who spent hours a day in the confessional hearing people’s sins. He said, “Put yourself on good terms with God, have recourse to the Sacrament of Penance, you will sleep as quietly as an angel.” I…
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Last week I wrote about confession, about how much of the sacramental life starts with being honest. But underneath the honesty is something stranger, something I still find myself circling back to. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life…
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Last week I spent most of my time in Scripture, learning to slow down and actually sit with it instead of skimming it. This week I want to turn to something different: the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist. I’ll admit, confession is the one I’d rather put off. Not because I doubt it works,…
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This week I keep coming back to the same picture. Not a building this time, but a tree. Psalm 1 says the one who delights in the law of the Lord, who meditates on it day and night, is like a tree planted near streams of water. It bears fruit in its season. Its leaves…
