I try to avoid politics as a priest. My job is to be a bridge, and we have all experienced the walls that go up when someone speaks about political issues. That said, sometimes politics needs to be addressed, admonished, or corrected, and on the issue of abortion, I believe we are entering a watershed moment, a moment where people in the 'middle' are being divided into currents. Unfortunately, it seems those currents are only two: Red and Blue, and they run further apart every day.

Recent weeks have seen political leaders and other advocates speaking candidly about aborting children and showing their joyful support of 'the right to choose'.

The monks of Norcia, Italy experienced a series of earthquakes that destroyed their ancient church in the Italian, mountain town. The town was also devastated. A year later, an inspiring chapter is told from the rubble.

"I give no thought to what lies behind but push on to what lies ahead. My entire attention is on the finish line as I run toward the prize to which God calls me – life on high in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 3:13-14 

In 1880 St.

Today I received a video from my sister of my almost 1 year old niece walking. If you have watched younger siblings or nieces or nephews take their first steps, you know how exciting it is. As I watched, the Gospel for this weekend came to mind, and I wondered, “Why do we even want to take steps at all?”

In the Gospel story of the storm at sea (Mt 14:22-33), Jesus has fed his disciples with the Bread of Life, and sends them on a boat to cross the sea.

I’ve been living and breathing the Italian language and culture for three weeks in Siena, and I’ve noticed something: when I immerse myself in the language by listening to locals speak, reading things in Italian, and playing my Italian language games on my phone, I’m much more likely to have the right words when my Italian nonna (grandmother) asks me a question.

But I’m not speaking only to prolonged immersion.

Start Digging - Homily

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Siena, Italy – July 30, 2017

1 Kings 3:1, 5-12; Matthew 13: 44-52

Today’s Gospel parable from Matthew 13:44-52 is a powerful story. A man is digging in a field and finds a great treasure. He buries it, and then, in great joy, he sells everything in order to buy the field wherein his treasure is buried. 

I grew up on a farm surrounded by other farms.

Choosing Joyful Burdens - Homily

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sts. Peter & Paul Parish, Haubstadt & Holy Cross Parish, Fort Branch, Indiana – July 19, 2017

Romans 8, Matthew 11

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am meek and humble of heart;

and you will find rest for yourselves.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.

Jesus uses “yoke” imagery: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me..." A "yoke" takes two to carry, like a team of oxen pulling a plow.

Independence Day — Homily

Sts. Peter & Paul Parish, Haubstadt, Indiana — July 4, 2017

Matthew 8:23-27

Every year on July 4, we gather and cook and eat and swim and boat and light and watch and in so many ways celebrate Independence Day, the Fourth of July. We celebrate freedom, but what sort of 'freedom' are we celebrating? 

In one of my moral theology classes in college seminary, we learned about two different types of 'freedom'. On one hand, there is the freedom of indifference.

There is something deeply satisfying about finishing a good book. This feeling is even more whole when upon turning the final page and closing the now-worn pages, you can sense that a new chapter will begun to be written because of the content you’ve poured over for some time.

Such was the case for me with John Paul the Great by Peggy Noonan. 

It was the last second to last weekend in April, and I was in Omaha, Nebraska for the wedding of a close friend of mine from FFA days before seminary.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity — Homily

Sts. Peter & Paul Parish, Haubstadt and  Holy Cross Parish, Fort Branch, Indiana — June 11, 2017

Exodus 34, 2 Corinthians 13, John 3

Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday. Are you excited?

At Christmas nostalgia about "what it might have been like" fills our minds, and we await the moment of putting the Christ-child into the manger scene.

Memorial Memories Article

Fr. Tyler R.
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