Spiritual nostalgia. It is so real. It is wanting to experience your feelings again during that amazing God moment. It’s wanting to experience again that feeling you had when the Cubs won the World Series. In the gospel for the Sunday, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain and reveals his glory. They feel they experience the realness of Jesus’ divinity, but then they go down the hill, and Jesus seems to have…

So wouldn’t it be easier if Juliet forced Romeo to love him? Then, none of that heartbreak would’ve happened. So what if Jim from “The Office” forced Pam to love him in the first season? Then, none of that drama or heartbreak would’ve happened. The answer is no. Because forced love is not love. In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus is tempted by Satan to throw himself down, to reveal his glory, to reveal his divinity to the…

Okay, so have you ever seen a Samoan war chant? One of the most intimidating things you will ever see in your life. The war chant is taunting the other team, taunting the enemy, saying, we’re not afraid of you. There’s nothing about you that makes us scared. We are confident. We are not scared of you at all. This is precisely what St. Paul is doing in the second reading for this Sunday. He is saying directly to death…

Remember when Hiccup loses his leg in “How to Train Your Dragon”? It’s an emotional rollercoaster. The love that Hiccup has for his family and Toothless leads to him sacrificing one of his legs. Hiccup’s love costs something, and the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus, is very clear: it is easy to love when it’s easy to love, but real, true, authentic, Christ-centered love costs something. Are we just loving Jesus when it’s easy when…

I am awful at chess. Like, bad. But the other thing is I try to protect all of the chess pieces on the board, which means I don’t honestly try to protect my king. This is the only thing that you need to win the game. And if you don’t have the king, you lose. Jesus Christ is trying to get this across in the gospel today. You have everything if you have Jesus and nothing else in your life. But if you don’t have Jesus, if you don’t have the king…

My favorite word in the gospel for this Sunday is the conjunction “but.” I love the part where the apostles say to Jesus, “Jesus, we have worked all night. We have caught nothing. But at your command, we will lower the nets.” The word “but” is so powerful because it shows the relationship with Jesus. A lot of the time, we don’t use that word. All we ask is the question, “Why?” “Jesus, why am I suffering like this?” “Why would…

So, this Sunday is so awesome. We are celebrating the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas. All of these candles will be brought into the church and blessed because we are celebrating the light of Christ coming into the temple for the first time. The people of Israel have been waiting for this moment forever. This would be like all of our churches having an empty tabernacle for hundreds of years…

If you’re a Marvel fan, what would it be like if Iron Man was real? If you’re a Harry Potter fan, what would it be like if Hogwarts was real? If you’re a Pokemon fan, what would it be like if Snorlax was real? Now, imagine that you’re an Old Testament Jew. What would it be like to realize that the Messiah was real? That’s what you would be dreaming about. That the Messiah, the Son of God, is true and real. In the gospel for this Sunday…