St. Joseph does not draw attention to himself. He listens, and he acts, exemplifying what a disciple is: the one who hears “the word of God and acts on it” (Lk 8:21). Whenever we turn our attention to Joseph, we are led, by him and through him, to discover the God whom he heeded and the divine mission he served.
Why I Stopped Watching 'The Chosen'
I stopped watching “The Chosen” because I suddenly realized, in a deep and visceral way, that television was robbing me of what the hard work of imaginatively constructing biblical scenes in prayer affords me. The problem was not the content or the quality of the production, but the very medium itself.
Fostering Vocational Discernment, Part 3 (Letters to Parents Series VIII)
Vocational discernment always begins with listening to the Word of God and is complete only when we act upon what we hear. In the language of the Gospel, this is expressed pithily as hearing the Word of God and acting on it (cf. Lk 8:11). In the previous letter, we talked about the importance of helping our children to become capable of hearing the Word of God. Now in this letter, we give our attention to acting on God’s Word. The focal point for our contemplation remains the first and perfect disciple: Mary, Mother of God.
Fostering Vocational Discernment, Part 2 (Letters to Parents Series VII)
There are many things vying for young people’s attention these days. Attention confers authority. Those who receive the most attention tend to wield the greatest influence over our lives, leading to the greatest authority of all: the authority to shape our desires. Whoever can shape young people’s desires most profoundly takes hold of not just the present but also the future.
Fostering Vocational Discernment, Part 1 (Letters to Parents Series VI)
Parents’ vocation is to help your children become capable of their vocations. Each vocation is the specific shape of one’s own discipleship, and discipleship itself is a matter of love. Discerning a vocation means learning how to perceive and respond to the Lord’s will within and through the concrete circumstances of your own life, for the good of others and thus for your own ultimate good.
Aiming for Excellence rather than Achievements (Letters to Parents Series V)
If the achievements-based culture is what we might need to question, and if just allowing kids to always do what they want is not exactly the solution, then how else might we think about how and why young people pursue enrichment and develop competencies? Perhaps a key is to focus on excellence rather than achievement. To help draw out what I am thinking of here, let me share some recent experiences from our oldest children’s school, which we intentionally chose for them because this school is designed with the intention of liberating young people from the goal-gobbling college preparatory race for the sake of guiding them toward a love of wisdom, personal enrichment and holistic learning.
Culture of the Home, Part 3: Customs (Letters to Parents Series IV)
It is customary to assume that children rebel against their parents. What is often discounted, though, is just how strong the influence of parents is. If children do rebel, it is rebellion against the standard the parents have established. Rebellion itself shows the outsized influence of parents.
It turns out, however, that the myth of rebellion is overblown.
Culture of the Home, Part 2: Time (Letters to Parents Series III)
Culture of the Home, Part 1: Space (Letters to Parents II)
The Hardest Thing about Parenting (Letters to Parents I)
The hardest thing about parenting is that who you are matters most.
That’s the hardest part. It is an unavoidable and, ultimately, undeniable fact. Nothing reveals your character like being called to help bring another human being into life and guide that person into maturity. Who you are is front and center in that mission.
Who do the crowds say that I am?
What blinds us to really seeing Jesus? At times, it might be overpromising, prepackaged spirituality exercises, like overhyped Lenten programs, that end up hooking us on slightly deviant images of God. The traditional practices of the Church, such as the instruction to fast, pray, and give alms in Lent, are comparatively underhyped. Might these, however, actually be remedies for our hidden idolatries and unperceived blindness?
Mass Shootings and the News Feed
Why 'This Is Us' Matters (or Mattered)
I wrote this article back in 2017, when my wife and I first started watching This Is Us on NBC (we actually watched it on network TV in 2017). As we were finishing the series in 2022 (on Hulu) with our teenage daughter, who had grown to really like it, I remembered what I had thought fire years ago about what might eventually undo this really excellent drama. Sure enough, it undid itself in just the way I feared it would. I bolded the key line down below.
Reflection and Practice: Helping You Form Others in Faith
This approach to faith formation is flexible but it definitely requires buy-in. No good faith formation ever takes place without the commitment and personal investment of a team of leaders. The leaders for this approach to faith formation are, primarily, parents and mentors, godparents and sponsors. This is not at all meant to replace the parish – to the contrary, this empowers the parish to do what the parish is meant to do: empower the faithful to take responsibility for the mission of evangelization.
Power and Wisdom: The Genius of the Catholic Whole
A Better Way to Form People for the Sacraments
I think that, for the most part, we in the Church have become too dependent on textbooks and third-party programs to run religious education in Catholic schools and parishes alike. This is not the Christian way of formation because the most important resource for those who are being formed for discipleship is, actually, you.