Over the years, I’ve written and created hundreds of articles and videos. If you’re looking for the answer to a faith-related question, browse the articles below or search for something specific using the search bar at the bottom of the page. You can also search just the videos on my YouTube page.
Over the years I’ve been writing, I’ve written a few series’ on different topics for the students I serve. Follow these links for those compilations:
- An overview of the Catholic faith (based on the YouCat)
- “Unfolding Scripture” – a seven month study of the Bible (specifically the 14 books that narrate the story of our Salvation)
- A video Bible study on the Gospel according to St. John (video)
- A written Bible study of the Gospel according to St. Mark
- The Biblical Covenants (a good starting point if you’ve never read the Bible)
Other posts, alphabetically by topic:
The Bible:
- What is the Bible? Where did it come from?
- Should We Read the Bible?
- Three Key Things Catholics Believe About the Bible
- How to Start Reading the Bible
- Did God ‘Harden’ Pharaoh’s Heart? – Making sense of a difficult passage in the Bible
- Living in the Word of God – A challenge to live out what we read and hear in the Bible
- The Bible is our Lighthouse – How scripture helps us find our way
Catholic Beliefs:
- 10 Basic Catholic Beliefs – a look at ten things every Catholic should know. 10 Beliefs Part 1 and 10 Beliefs Part 2
- Audacious Faith: This is my Body – on the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist
- Audacious Faith: He was Conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit
- Believing in God
- (Be)Loved by the Father
- (Be)Loved by the Son
- (Be)Loved by the Holy Spirit
- Bored at Mass? – 8 Tips to bring the Mass to Life
- Can We Disagree with Church teaching?
- Is God really out there?
- Is it Hard to Get to Heaven?
- Knowing God’s Love
- The Last Four Things – Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell
- “You did not choose me, but I chose you…” – on what it means to say we are chosen by God.
Faith & Belief
- An OGRE To Help You Grow Closer to God – Four spiritual habits to build your relationship with God.
- The Better Part – Learning from the Lord of the Rings to do the “duty of the moment”
- But For the Grace of God, There Go I… – recognizing that we all struggle with our weaknesses
- Complacency is Dangerous – on the dangers of spiritually “coasting” through life
- Defend Your Castle – Using lessons from medieval times to face temptation
- How to Be Third – Practical resolutions to better love God & neighbor
- I Did it My Way – Remembering that God is really in control
- I Do Believe, Help My Unbelief
- I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing – How Christians approach the “fear of missing out.”
- If You Only Knew -What God sees when He looks at you
- Lord, Help Me Persevere – Getting started in the spiritual life
- Make Some Room – Using the season of Advent to make sure our hearts have room for Jesus
- Mustard Weeds – If faith is like a mustard seed… what does that mean?
- Run the Race – Training to excel in the spiritual life
- Sons, Servants, and Robin Hood – why we “dare” to call God Father
- Spiritual Yardwork – What keeping plants has taught me about my spiritual life
- Stuck in a Rut – how the spring melt is like drawing closer to Christ
- Superhero Stories – What our fascination with comic book heroes teaches us about our faith
- Three Spiritual New Year’s Resolutions
Jesus:
- The Babe, the Son of Mary
- The Cross = A Broken Heart
- Gigantic Joy – How Jesus brings light into the ordinariness of life.
- The Greatest Rescue Mission of all Time
- Lead us Not into Temptation & Temptation Part II – a two part reflection on how we can learn from Jesus’ temptation
- The Messy Manger – How the scene of Jesus’ birth teaches us about God’s love for us
- My Most Embarrassing Memory (how Easter Changes things)
- The Sign of a Hero – How the Cross reminds us of our greatest hero, Jesus
- What Happened to the Healings? – How God hasn’t stopped the wonders we marvel at when we read the Bible
- When is Jesus coming back?
- Why did Jesus have to die?
- Star Wars & The Birth of Christ
- Posts relating to the Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday):
- Here. We. Go. – A reflection on the Triduum, the most important celebration of the Church year
- Holy Thursday Meditation
- St. John Chrysostom’s Good Friday Reflection
- Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday
- St. John Chrysostom’s Easter Reflection
Marriage & Sexuality
- A Person First: Tips to fight pornography addiction
- Christian Marriage (what is it?)
- C.S. Lewis and our Right to Happiness
- Bob Rice’s 6 Tips for Sexual Purity: Whatever, Flee, Avoid, Trust, Mercy, Fasting
- I Still Love My Ex-Girlfriend – What love and dating should lead us to
- Love and Chastity
- Love People and Use Things: Some ways that Jesus’ encounter with the woman in John 8 teaches us not to use others.
- The Problem with Pornography
Mercy & Forgiveness
- “Hating the Sin” – An explanation of the way in which we can love a person whose actions we may disagree with
- Mercy and the Death of St. Stephen – How would St. Stephen react to encountering the one who had him killed in Heaven?
- Les Miserables – A look at Justice & Mercy in the epic musical
- There’s a Little Judas in All of Us -how we aren’t as unlike the betrayer as we might like to think
- Waterfights & Sinning
- “With Eyes of Mercy” – an introduction to the year of Mercy (2015-16)
Prayer:
- The Battle of Prayer – When prayer becomes a struggle
- C4 Prayer – A way to pray with scripture
- Committing to Prayer -with St. Francis de Sales’ outline for prayer & recollection
- Lord, Teach us To Pray – Trying to find the right words to talk to God
- Prayer as Relationship
- When Words Run out – Starting the conversation in prayer
Prayers (specific traditional ones):
Saints:
- Every Life Matters – What St. John Paul II taught us about the value of every human person
- The Fatherhood of St. Joseph – Some of the specific lessons I’ve learned from Jesus’ foster father
- Mary, the Mother of God
- Prisoner 16670 – The Heroic life of St. Maximilian Kolbe (killed in Auschwitz in 1941)
- St. Joseph – Why Jesus’ foster father is one of my heroes
Suffering:
- And Jesus Wept
- God Gives us More than We Can Handle
- God, Grant Me Serenity (reflection during Covid-19)
- I Wish None of This Would Have Happened – What Lewis & Tolkien would say when we face hard times
- No Words
- When God & Life Don’t Seem to Make Sense
- Why does God Let us Suffer So Much?
- Why do Good People Suffer?
The Ten Commandments & Morality
- The Charlie Challenge & the First Commandment
- Conversion Takes Practice – Just like golf, sometimes we have to work at our life of faith, fail, and start over again
- Doing Battle on the Front Lines – The Spiritual battle all Christians Face
- Doing Battle on the Front Lines Part II – Who and what are our spiritual enemies?
- Drinking, Partying (and more) in the Bible – From LIFE TEEN’s “Bible Geek, what the Bible says about drinking and partying
- Too Hard: a look at John 6 & the ways Jesus’ teachings can challenge us
- What does it mean to be free? – a look at love and freedom through the lens of faith
- What is Truth? – Choosing to stand up for what’s right
Other Reflections on a Variety of Topics:
- Against Varnish – not just glossing over the weaknesses in our faith
- The Angry Mob – how different are we than those who killed Jesus?
- As You Are – Understanding the way in which God loves us
- The Barque of St. Peter – All of us are a part of the Church, journeying to the same destination
- Be the Hero (Doing what you can) – what I learned on one of my hardest days
- Blessed Chaos – how life can get turned upside down
- Finding Hope – Seeing hope when we go through hard times.
- God Stacked the Deck in My Favor – a little of Mike’s journey of faith
- Growing Up – Some thoughts on worry, growing up, and trusting God
- Lent: More than a French Word for Slow
- Lent 2019: Unfinished Business – What Lent has to do with the time that video games didn’t have save points
- Lenten Renovations – The never ending saga of home repairs and the spiritual life
- Lessons from Star Wars – Darth Vader & the Stony Heart
- Lessons from Summer Camp – what summers at Camp St. Louis taught me
- Life at Sea – What Christians Can Learn from Sailors
- Life in Third Place -Why I am third
- Man Up! – what the life of James Kirk teaches us about manhood
- On Youth Ministry – The task I (and many others) have accepted in the life of the Church today.
- A Promise to the Youth I Serve – Why I do what I do.
- Spoiling the End(game) – How God’s plan is a much bigger deal than any blockbuster movie
- Ten Things I Learned as a Parish Youth Minister
- To Boldly Go – words of encouragement to high school graduates
- Wake-up Calls – learning to embrace God’s call for us in this moment
- Worth it
Tribute Posts:
- Three Words – for my father who died in January 2018
- A Good One – a tribute to Bob Hagel, my father-in-law, who died in April 2017
- Thank You, Fr. Catfish – a tribute to Fr. Mike “Catfish” Mireau who died in September 2014
- “Murray” – a friend and coworker who died in the fall of 2010