A Deeper Dive for Authentic, Hopeful, Worshipful Faith

Because God dwells among us, how we treat the community becomes a matter of holiness.

Christian growth belongs to God, freeing the church to practice faithfulness without anxiety about results.

Ash Wednesday invites us to lean into the joy of our salvation by embracing our cracks. 

God’s true glory is revealed not through judgment or display, but through faithful stewardship of mysteries entrusted to us.

The Spirit forms the church to see the world through the cruciform wisdom of Christ rather than through human certainty.

Faith endures not because it is impressive, but because it rets on God's self-giving power revealed in Christ crucified.

God chooses what the world dismisses to reveal a wisdom grounded in grace rather than power.

In a world full of chaos, our call is to see the world through the eyes of Christ alone to find unity as the body of Christ.  

"Everyone 'neath your vine and fig tree shall live in peace and unafraid."

Homily, 01.04.2026

"There are two ways of waking up in the morning. One is to say 'Good morning, God,' and the other is to say, 'Good God, morning'!" - Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Once in our world, a Stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world. – C.S. Lewis

It was God-With-Us. Not the God-Up-There somewhere who answers our prayers by lifting us out of our lives, but the God who comes to us in the midst of them—however far from home we are, however less than ideal our circumstances, however much or little our lives reflect the Christmas cards we send. –Barbara Brown Taylor

Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for spiritual joy. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and spiritual joy you have not yet begun to live. –Thomas Merton

 It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time. On this platform of peace, we can create a language to translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other. –Maya Angelou

The Gospel reveals that life is always a mixed bag, but a good mixed bag. The kingdom “does not admit of [full] observation” here. Only in eternity are all shadows resolved. Here we live in faith and trust in the in-between. –Richard Roh

We may find ourselves in social or political contexts that block any attempt at dialogue. Such situations challenge us to persevere in our efforts to create the conditions necessary for dialogue. To persist in this effort requires serenity, patience, and clarity of purpose. As the conditions for dialogue are being established to open a path toward transformation, our creative and steadfast presence becomes a witness. –Arturo Sosa, S.J.

True Christianity is growth in the life of the Spirit, a deepening of the new life, a continuous rebirth, in which the exterior and superficial life of the ego-self is discarded like an old snake skin and the mysterious, invisible self of the Spirit becomes more present and more active. The true Christian rebirth is a renewed transformation, a “Passover” in which [a person] is progressively liberated from selfishness and not only grows in love but in some sense “becomes love.” The perfection of the new birth is reached where there is no more selfishness, there is only love.  –Thomas Merton

God is a missionary God; God’s mission has a church. Focusing primarily on the church’s mission without a larger discernment of the church’s identity with respect to God’s mission will get us nowhere. Instead, we need to place God’s mission as lived out with respect to a holistic gospel into dialogue with the realities of contemporary culture. –Craig Van Gelder, Craig and Dwight Zscheile

Focus:   Discernment is more than gathering and analyzing data. Discernment develops the capacity to perceive where God is at work in the global and local situation in order to choose what better leads to the glory of God, which is nothing other than the fullness of human life. –Arturo Sosa, S.J.