Lay Life in a Year

Ezekiel cooked his food over cow poop to symbolize the defiled food the Israelites would eat in exile (Ezekiel 4:12-15).  John the Baptist ate locusts.  And as a way to show how Israel failed to cling to Him, God told Jeremiah to buy some underwear, wear it, then hide...

It was a hard morning with the kids. The oldest didn’t listen and spilled his cereal all over the floor. I was upset, but surprisingly, my wife wasn’t. She refilled his bowl, patted him on the head, and then quietly got down on her knees to clean up his mess. It was...

You may have heard St. Paul’s shocking words: “We make up for what is lacking in the suffering of Christ.” (Col. 1:24) Is he saying Jesus isn’t enough? It’s a bit like when my 4 year old helps me cook. Well, he feels like he’s helping, but mostly I let him add some...

Charles was an older man who spent the whole day working with us on a project. It was touching how often things reminded him of his wife. Flowers he brought to their first date, the time she was in the hospital for a week, and her kindness, joy, and patience. After 55...

Have you ever lost your keys and ended up searching all over the place? Maybe you even look in the same drawer two or three times? You know they’re around, but they just don’t seem to be anywhere. Well, sometimes this is how it is with God too. We know He is...

Critics of the Church often accuse Her of all sorts of scandal, politics, and power struggles. Well, they’re right! The Church today and through the years has been filled with disunity. We can’t pretend these problems haven’t been there in the past or that they don’t...

One of our team members was talking to an atheist who said, “I just can't accept a God who is Father.” His earthly dad had been so cruel that he couldn’t bring himself to see God as a good dad. Although the challenge might not always be this intense, even a Catholic...

We might not remember our own Baptism, but we often remember the Baptism of our loved ones: the joy of being surrounded by family and friends, the good food, conversation, and community. It can be a wonderful event. But, reading through Christifideles Laici, John Paul...

​John Paul II knew pain and suffering. He experienced it personally. His mother and father died when he was young, many of his friends were killed during World War II, and he had to live his vocation in a time of oppression, watching his flock deal with injustice on a...