The Hopeful Millennial

This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost. Most of us know the story of the Disciples gathered behind locked doors, hiding out of fear of the Jews and Christ appearing in their midst. He greets them, “Peace be with you,” and breathes on them to “receive the Holy Spirit”. Words that have been echoed in our Catholic Tradition. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says "Knowledge of faith is possible only in the Holy Spirit: to be in touch with Christ, we must first have been touched by the Holy Spirit. He comes to meet us and kindle faith in us." (CCC, 683).  Our faith is intertwined with the Trinity, God in Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God the Father gave us the Son, who taught us how to love both others and our Father in Heaven, as well as the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills us and we are able to understand both God the Father and God the Son, as the Catechism explains.  Pentecost is a day to celebrate the Holy Spirit and rejoice at the bea

Over the last two months our faith has been challenged probably in a way that it never had previously in our lifetimes. Certainly it has left us with mixed emotions and struggles of how practicing our faith has changed. In order for us to grow, it is important for us to reflect on how our faith has been impacted and, more importantly, what are we going to do as we move forward?  Over the next few weeks, we will start to see the state reopen, including the return to the public celebration of the Mass. I know we all have been longing for the return of this opportunity. I want to remind all of us that the heartbeat of the Church never stopped. The Mass never stopped being said by our religious across the globe. Many churches allowed you to still go in for private prayer and in some places Adoration. While we all miss the Sacraments and being able to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist, the fact remains that our Church is alive and well. Our priests (and their staff members) are doing their

Over the two last months we’ve spent more time than ever in separation from one another and from the Eucharist, the Source and Summit of our Faith. Over the last week, I have gotten some feedback from our young people and the struggles they’ve been dealing with in their spiritual lives. Struggles we probably all can relate too.  As I went to write this reflection I found myself thinking about the seasons we go through in our spiritual lives. We have seasons where our faith is on fire, we have seasons where we move easily through it and it doesn’t require a lot of effort, and then we have seasons where even praying the Our Father seems like it is the biggest struggle in the world, let alone going to Mass and living out our Catholic faith.  What do we do then? Maybe this is where you find yourself now. Being at home and unable to physically access the Sacraments has tested you in a way you couldn’t have imagined. Over my life, I know I have never experienced my faith being refined in thi