Spirit Juice is proud to present Reel Homilies from Father Tim Anastos, associate chaplain of the St. John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Illinois-Chicago. In these minute-long reflections, Father Tim will unpack the Sunday Gospel readings through the lenses of Church tradition, pop culture, and self-improvement. We hope these reflections serve to inspire your own thoughts on the Gospel and bring you closer to Christ…as well as bring a smile to your face.
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Soften The Hardened Heart
Let’s talk about Thanos. Thanos is not a good guy. He basically destroys half of the universe. He has so many opportunities to change his heart, but his heart is so hardened that he is not able to. And that’s the downfall of Thanos, that his heart is so hardened that he can’t have a conversion. In the gospel for this Sunday…
Be Consistent With Jesus
Maybe or maybe not you have a friend like this, someone who is so good at giving grand gestures, someone who really knows how to show you a good time. But that person then, like, ghosts you for two weeks straight. If we don’t have consistency in a friendship, then it just feels empty. And here is what Jesus is saying in this…
On Imaginative Prayer
Saint Ignatius of Loyola. He is a rockstar saint. He popularized something that is called imaginative prayer. We use our imagination to pray because God created our imagination to speak to us. That’s incredible! This Sunday’s Gospel is absolutely beautiful. It’s the Prodigal Son. Prodigal Son leaves the Father’s house, but he’s…
SpongeBob or Patrick?
SpongeBob versus Patrick. We all know SpongeBob. We all know he actually has a lot of drive. He actually has a lot of vision. He wants to do something, and he gets after it. Patrick, on the other hand, he has no vision. He lives under a rock. He doesn’t really do anything. That is how we can so often live as Catholics. We live as Patrick…
The Lowest Seat
This Sunday’s gospel is all about partying. I think Pope Francis should write an encyclical about how to party like a Catholic. This gospel is so good because Jesus talks about parties. We are called, not just in parties, but in life, to take the lowest seat so that we can be raised up. When you enter into a church, what is the lowest seat…
The Narrow Gate
I just got back from an incredible camping trip in Montana. One thing that was so amazing about this trip is that in order to go to this camping site, we had to go into this narrow valley. And in this narrow valley, we couldn’t use our phones at all and we knew that. We were willing to give up our phones, our social media, everything…
Set Them On Fire
This Sunday’s gospel is incredible. It is Jesus Christ who is absolutely getting after it, saying to us that He has come to set the world on fire and how He wishes it was already blazing. I think a lot of the times we are not set on fire, or we forget that we have been given His love and given His Holy Spirit, that we walk around like zombies…
Start Small
So at the foot of the mountain of Assisi. There is a beautiful church called Saint Mary of the Angels. Inside the church is another very small church called the Portiuncula, which is where Saint Francis began his mission. He didn’t begin as one who was feeding the whole world. He was just a simple man who said yes in a…