Sweetly Broken

This is a powerful video to meditate on the cross and Jesus' sacrifice. We have used this video many times during retreats and it is always moving. The music is from Jeremy Riddle.

This video was made by a wonderful young woman I met while I was in Slovakia. Hence the subtitles in Slovakian (which can be turned off by clicking the CC button at the bottom).

Be not afraid... A Savior is born, Christ the Lord!

We are about to enter the season of Advent this Sunday. The time of potential, prayerful and active preparation for the first and second comings of the Lord Jesus!

We are told by St. Luke that an angel of the Lord declared to shepherds, who had the night shift, "good news of great joy "(see Luke 2:1-20). These men who were minding their business out in a field, were quite freaked out by directly encountering the glorious presence of God, can you imagine, wouldn't you be? The angel reassured them and told them why he was there, to announce what God was doing right there in Bethlehem. Further the angel told them, they would find this good news in a cave, in a manger, and that the good news was a new born baby, who was Messiah and Lord! Many of the heavenly host who apparently were listening in, couldn't contain themselves any longer, and burst upon the shepherds praising God for his great glory and for initiating his long awaited saving mission of all creation in ultimate humility becoming a human child.

The shepherds ran to "Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened!" They stooped to enter the cave. Stooping is no problem for shepherds who are use to living a lowly and out of the lime light type of lifestyle. But for some of us, the idea of humbling ourselves to stoop down to see this good news..? Well, it just doesn't seem right or in keeping with our views of greatness, what we see 24/7 on the tube or perhaps aspire to for our own way of living! MTV's show, Cribs will not be carrying this crib, for sure! This is not the type of 'crib' the messiah should be born in or that I should be found hanging around. Well it was.

Humbling ourselves to see Jesus is something worth praying for during this season. Drawing close to the Word who created all things, and has now become human and gladly humbled himself to be born in manger for me and you. Who was seen by the lowly and poor, who gladly bowed down to see this sight. Lowering ourselves in gratitude, praise and worship of Emmanuel, the Messiah and Savior, Jesus, the Son of the Most High. Take the opportunity to carve out specific time on your calendar, in this busy season, to prayerfully read the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke. Place yourself in the fields with the shepherds and in the cave before the Son of God, pondering with his mother what all of this means for me.

One other observation, the Shepherds having seen this miracle of God become man, "made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child;and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them." (Luke 2:17-18) They could not keep it to themselves, they personally encountered God's work of salvation and told others the good news they had heard and seen.

Advent and Christmas is a grace laden season, where many people who are broken hearted, lost and confused approach the 'holidays' with apprehension. Many are brought to a place where they can stoop to see this thing that God has done, if only some messenger of the Lord would tell them the good news. Be open and praying for opportunities to make known what was told to you! This Good news of God's love becoming a man, Jesus, born to save each one of us, and how he loves you!

During this Advent, let's give glory to God, like the angels and shepherds and, make known his love to those around us in words and witness of his love.

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (Luke 2:20)

Archbishop at Theology on Tap

On November 7th, I gathered with about 50 or 60 Young adults at a local bar to meet the new Archbishop of Baltimore. In a session of "Theology on Tap", Archbishop O'Brien gave an address to the young adults gathered. It was an informal way for young adults to meet and receive guidance from their new "shepherd". He was very passionate about young adults and gave us some great insights for growth in our faith and service to the community.


I went with a group of young adults, many of whom attend ChristLife's Following Christ course. We were all very inspired by the Archbishop's words and excited to put those words into action. One thing that really struck me was when the Archbishop commented on his belief that young adults are capable of great self-giving.

I've heard it said that 'the youth of today are to much to themselves, to tied up in their own interests, to selfish. they're not going to listen to a message like this'...and I really resent that...I've spent the last twenty two years working with young people...and I've seen kids in the seminary willing to do anything to serve that neighbor of theirs that wants to seek Christ (Archbishop O'Brien at Theology on Tap, Baltimore).

ChristLife recently podcasted a clip from the Archbishop's address and well as Q&A with the young adults present. Listen in to this latest podcast here, or click play below:

Making Disciples!

"Go therefore and make disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20)

The calling from the Lord of every Christian is to proclaim the Gospel to the world! I have found that in my own life God provides so many small opportunities to share Him with others. It doesn't have to be standing at a podium in a huge public square (though it could be), but simple, small ways of telling others how Jesus has impacted our lives.

I am a waitress at a restaurant and one day I was waiting on an elderly man sitting by himself. He asked me why I seemed so happy, and I ended up telling him about my relationship with the Lord. It was a great conversation and he talked about his life in the military, and how he knows he needs the Lord more in his life. It is these daily, small opportunities God puts in our lives that can have a lasting impact on people's lives, and I need to be more open to them!

The beautiful thing about sharing Christ is that we are not expected to do it on our own. The Holy Spirit comes and anoints our words so that we are simply instruments of the Lord. Dave Nodar expands on how to share Christ with others through the power of the Holy Spirit in Christlife's most recent podcast "Called to Share Christ". I hope this podcast will inspire us all to enter into the mission field of making disciples by sharing Christ with others!

Listen in to the latest podcast here, or click play below:

Random thoughts from the Catholic seminary....

After interning at Christlife for my last year at UMBC I now have the privelege of studying at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore. The more I study here the more frequently I am struck by the counter-cultural nature of living in a Catholic seminary. Indeed, the more I study the history of philosophy, the more I see how the architects of the present age sought to fashion a society in which God is removed from the public consciousness. Yet, in spite of 500 years of Western Civilization seeking to uproot itself from it Christian past, faith survives. When reality finally hits and the rubber meets to road we cannot help but turn our eyes heavenward and ask the most fundamental questions of our human existence. At the end of the day when we survey the contemporary culture, we still observe the deepest human hunger, the hunger for God, unsatisfied. The tragedy of our postmodern civilization is that the deepest needs of man remain unmet as we seek to numb ourselves to the pain of existence with our ingenious technology. Yet, our human condition remains and we stand in need of a savior. Thanks be to God 2000 years ago God revealed himself in a way that can never be silenced. In becoming man and living, dying, and rising among us, Jesus Christ touched the deepest needs of the human heart with the incredible beauty of incarnate love. No matter what trials and tribulations we face in our present age, Jesus is and always will be the man who loves and lives.

Many have never had the chance to know Christ

Dave's blog account isn't posting - so here are his latest thoughts...

“Sometimes Catholics have lost or never had the chance to experience Christ personally, not as a mere value, or paradigm, but as the living Lord, the way the truth and the life.”
- Pope John Paul II, address to US Bishops


Recently I attended a meeting (non-religious in nature) at which a woman shared how she had been raised as a Catholic, gone to Catholic schools, and yet had never come to know God personally until she had been an adult for many years. And, she went on, it was not in the Catholic Church that she learned about this loving relationship that brought her great peace and change of life. I have heard similar stories hundreds of times over the years.

This weekend I participated in one of our Discovering Christ retreats for young adults. It was a wonderful time in which there is time for prayer, teaching, fun, laughter, fellowship and explicit opportunity to ask Jesus to be the priority of their lives - the Lord and Savior of all they are. Additionally it was a time when people could ask Jesus to baptize them in the Holy Spirit. See Luke 3:16. (In theological terms, the participants were praying for renewal of the grace of the sacraments of initiation ). It was wonderful to be there and witness the work of grace among us!

Now here is the point I would like to make, many Catholics in and outside of our parishes, have never had the chance to have a personal relationship with Jesus. Many have never even been told that this was a possibility. They need to hear clearly proclaimed the person of the Jesus Christ, and the explicit invitation to personally encounter him as Lord of their lives. And they need to be told how to do this. We as Catholics - clergy, religious and laity, who have been graced with knowledge of the Lord, must take up the commission of Christ (Matthew 28:18-20) to make him known, loved and followed.

The call of the Catholic Church presently to make evangelization, once again, the essential mission of the Church, in practice and not just in theory, calls for everyone of us to pray and to take action to help the many who do not personally know him to have the opportunity that Jesus made possible by his death and resurrection.

People are hungry for God. As Catholics we have been entrusted with a missionary mandate to tell them Who is the bread that will satisfy their hunger!

Father, use us we pray! Grant us courage to be fools for Christ, not ashamed to share the Good news with others who have the right to know. Grant us the power from on high to be witnesses to Jesus, in our lives and explicitly in our words. Grant our parishes and organizations fire to move and make available the means of helping others to know, Jesus is Lord! Amen.

Proofs for God

In the face of a new breed of books on atheism, most notably "God is not Great: How religion poisons everything" by Christopher Hitchens and the "God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins - we, as Christians need to hear again the words of Scripture:

"Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence; and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame." (1 Peter 3:14-16)

And speaking of the most basic "defense," which is an apologetic for God, most of us can probably say with the writer-convert Andre Frossard "God exists, and I have experienced Him." That is our best defense, or even offense :)

And just like I can say "love exists," not primarily because of a series of argument, but because I "have experienced it," so I can witness to the experience of knowing God. This is what our Sharing Christ series is all about.

BUT. Ah, yes, the long-awaited "but." The Church (the visible communion of those who believe in Jesus Christ) has always valued "reason." So recently I came across a great video by Fr. Robert Barron, a most excellent priest and teacher of the faith whom I had the pleasure of podcast-interviewing him last year, who gives a great series of arguments from reason for God's existence. Its one clip from a series of fifty clips on Christianity called Faith Clips. Enjoy!