The Journal
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
— 1 PETER 5:8
Leading a family spiritually isn’t something I arrived knowing how to do. This is me figuring it out as a dad, out loud, one day at a time.
No long essays here. Just posts, short reflections, a passage worth sitting with, a saint’s words, a question worth asking yourself. Come back often, it’s meant to build over time.
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What I Keep Holding Back
Continue reading →: What I Keep Holding BackI started reading Karol Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility this week, mostly because I wanted language for something I already suspected about my own marriage. He calls it the sincere gift of self, the idea that love only becomes real when a person stops being used and starts being given. Not given partly. Given. That phrase…
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Before It’s Light Out
Continue reading →: Before It’s Light OutI’ve been thinking about something small in Mark’s Gospel that I used to skim right past. Very early…
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The Power of Being a Dad
Continue reading →: The Power of Being a DadI have been sitting with something Paul writes to Titus about picking leaders for the church. He does…
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Teach Me to Pray
Continue reading →: Teach Me to PrayThis month I’ve been building on Scripture, then the sacraments, and now I want to turn to prayer…
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Taste and See
Continue reading →: Taste and SeeThis week has been confession and the Eucharist, two sacraments I used to think of as separate errands.…
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Not Figuring This Out Alone
Continue reading →: Not Figuring This Out AloneThis week I’ve been sitting with confession and the Eucharist, two sacraments that ask more of me than…
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Why Not Just Tell God Myself
Continue reading →: Why Not Just Tell God MyselfFor a long time I figured confession was a Catholic add-on, something extra layered on top of what…
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The Ten Minutes I Keep Skipping
Continue reading →: The Ten Minutes I Keep SkippingThere’s a habit I keep meaning to build and keep letting slide. Before bed, just ten minutes, going…
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Sleeping Like an Angel
Continue reading →: Sleeping Like an AngelI read something this week from St. John Vianney, the parish priest they now call the Cure of…
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The Part I Can’t Explain Away
Continue reading →: The Part I Can’t Explain AwayLast week I wrote about confession, about how much of the sacramental life starts with being honest. But…
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The Part I’d Rather Skip
Continue reading →: The Part I’d Rather SkipLast week I spent most of my time in Scripture, learning to slow down and actually sit with…
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Planted Near the Water
Continue reading →: Planted Near the WaterThis week I keep coming back to the same picture. Not a building this time, but a tree.…
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Someone Has to Read It With You
Continue reading →: Someone Has to Read It With YouThis week I’ve been trying to actually read Scripture instead of just skimming it for a verse that…
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I Thought It Wasn’t for Me
Continue reading →: I Thought It Wasn’t for MeFor a long time I thought the Bible wasn’t really for me. It felt like something for priests,…
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Just One Line Today
Continue reading →: Just One Line TodayHere’s what I did this morning, and what I want to do again today. I opened my Bible…
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Getting to Know Christ
Continue reading →: Getting to Know ChristI read something this week from Saint Jerome that I have not been able to shake. He wrote,…
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What Everything Else Rests On
Continue reading →: What Everything Else Rests OnI’ve been sitting with a line from Paul this week, from his first letter to the Corinthians. He’s…
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What I’m Standing On
Continue reading →: What I’m Standing OnI keep coming back to that parable in Matthew 7, the wise man who builds his house on…
