A few weeks ago while on our trip to Italy, we went to a town called Lucca. Lucca is located in the Tuscany region of Italy and was believed to have been founded sometime around 180 BC. It is a beautiful place and one that I highly recommend if you ever are in the Tuscany region. Within the walled part of the city is the Cathedral of St. Martin. Inside the cathedral is the Chapel of the Holy Face, or the Volto Santo. It is also called the Holy Cross. Within the small chapel is a crucifix made of walnut showing Christ wearing a tunic. Yet it is the face,…

We are very grateful to have been invited by friends to join them in Tuscany, Italy during the boy’s fall break last week. It was a wonderful week of sights and sounds. We decided to drive, so our journey took us up, down, around, and even through the Alps. It was truly a beautiful ride. Our first stop after coming through the Great St. Bernard Pass was a town in northern Italy called Aosta. Aosta is a nestled within the Italian Alps and home of some great Roman Empire history. After a night in Aosta, we continued our drive down through northern Italy and the beautiful Italian Riviera to the…

One of my favorite activities when I spent seven years as youth minister at St. Ann Parish in Phoenixville, PA was “Music Night.” It was a night when one by one the kids would let everyone know their favorite song at that particular time in their lives. We would then listen to the song together as a group. The purpose had multiple levels to it. “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” Plato At first glance it was a chance to acutely listen to the lyrics of the song and…

I had the opportunity to go to the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany in June 2015. It was an amazing experience that I hope will stay with me forever. The Virgin Mary is the “path” that God Himself has prepared to come into the world. Let us entrust to Her the expectation of salvation and peace for all men and women of our time. -Pope Francis

The word “family” can evoke many emotions and connotations. For some, family is a great source of anguish and pain. For others, family represents the only safe place in a troubled world. Yet for most of us, family is a mixed bag of good times and bad times yet something that we would never replace. Then there is the family in terms of a sacramental image of God. An image that suggests serving one another, dying to ourselves for the well-being of another, and giving and receiving love so that creation can take root, make the family the very “image” of the Trinitarian God who is Love. Seeing the family…

There is a great light that shines from the Cross of Christ. A light full of grace that glistens my soul and illuminates the darkness and dysfunction of my human capacity. Oh the grace. A light full of mercy that corrodes my desire to “feel good” and exposes my attachments to the things that cause injury. Oh the mercy. A light full of hope that swallows the source of my pain onto Himself so that through darkness I might find life. Oh the hope. Today the Church proclaims the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Here are some of the crosses that have caught my eye over the last…

Spent the day today on top of Brienzer Rothorn, what a beautiful place… “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made” (Ps 33:6). This tells us that the world came about as the result of a decision, not from chaos or chance, and this exalts it all the more. The creating word expresses a free choice. The universe did not emerge as the result of arbitrary omnipotence, a show of force or a desire for self-assertion. Creation is of the order of love. God’s love is the fundamental moving force in all created things” -Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, 77      

We had a great time in Paris over the weekend and fell in love with the city.  Here are a few of the sights. “Paris is worth a mass” -(Attributed to King Henry IV)