Easter has brought us the Resurrection of Our Lord after our 40 days of Lent. A Great Light breaks through the horror of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ as He rises from the tomb. Today we beg for the grace to rise with Our Lord as we head off to our usual work. We'll look to Psalm 118 (Protestants have it as Psalm 119) to help us. Our hope is that we can refresh all we do for the greater glory of God. Why will Psalm 118 assist us here? For one thing, Psalm 118 is chanted every Sunday in the Divine Office, beginning with Lauds. It starts each week anew. It is also chanted on select spe ..read more

As we flow through the Easter Season, here's a thought that might be appropriate to the Season. Let's dive in with the whole Church thing. You know what's up with that, right? From the bottom to the top, somehow we've gotten infected. Whether you believe it's Modernists, Communists, Freemasons, homosexuals (or the varied selection of alphabet categories), or whatever other categories of heretics, apostates, and (in a best case scenario) sadly misguided souls, our clergy is riddled with bullets. Bullets? Yes, Satan has his gun. And he shoots straight.  Now, before we hoist ourselves on our ..read more

We continue to settle into the Easter Season, picking up on our last post.  If you recall, we're addressing a situation where our efforts during Lent didn't provide the spiritual result hoped for. Typically this will be expressed as a feeling, or even some objective analysis that yields a conclusion. Our spiritual director, - Fr. Francis LeBuffe will continue his cogent explanation of what he terms a "running fight" in our spiritual life. And we will continue to see how we can apply his ideas to both our spiritual life and our work. To sum up, we've learned that there's never an ..read more

We're settling into the Easter Season now. But perhaps our efforts during Lent Lent didn't provide the spiritual result hoped for. This phenomenon, may be expressed as a feeling, or even some objective analysis that yields a conclusion. Today we have some words from a solid spiritual director. He explains how and why we are always engaged in what he calls a "running fight" in our spiritual life. We might read these words and consider how to apply them to our daily work. For example, let's say we have given ourselves some meaty goal to improve our knowledge and/or skills in whatever work we do ..read more

On this Sunday after Easter, here's a reminder that Easter is more than just Easter Sunday. For this we share our post from last year... It's eight days from Easter. In the traditonal calendar, today is designated "Low Sunday." Such designation provides us with a contrast to the incomparable glory of Easter Sunday. In the newfangled calendar it's Divine Mercy Sunday, a creation of Pope St. John Paul II. Whichever you observe today, we're all well on our way into the Easter Season, the Resurrection having left Lent in its wake. And whatever our state of mind and spirit, it behooves us to keep E ..read more

(re-post from 2023)   We're at the fifth day of the Easter Octave. As we noted before, it's still Easter, in all its fullness, throughout the Octave. And we're here at work doing our best to celebrate this grace-filled Octave best we can, in the midst of our busy work day. But just as we may struggle on any typical work day to keep God present to us in some way right here in the midst of the work-flow, the same pertains to the Easter Octave. Any grandiose intentions of keeping the glory of Easter present and alive may very well be worn away by the pressing nature of the task at hand. And ..read more

Happy Easter! Christ Is Risen! We've struggled to keep our Lenten discipline. We've tried our best to remain recollected during Holy Week. Every year brings its own challenges.  As we did our best to keep our spiritual focus, we attended to the duties of our state of life diligently. Meanwhile, the world, the flesh and the devil continued to throw every possible obstacle in our way. That's just how it goes in this Vale of Tears, isn't it? But now it's time to celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is the most glorious time of year we now enter: Easter.  Of course, a ..read more

(re-post)   It's Holy Thursday. It's also a work day. Lately, I've been able to finish up in time to get to Mass Holy Thursday night. Hope you can too. Meanwhile, most of us likely have to work during this Holy Thursday. Maybe your work consists of the "usual" stuff, as mine will. But in the midst of it, maybe we can all recollect ourselves from time to time to remember what's coming up in just a few hours: Good Friday. We might remind ourselves that Our Lord's Passion begins tonight with the Agony in the Garden. After Holy Thursday Mass, the custom of reserving the Blessed Sacrament at ..read more

(re-post)  We're at work during Holy Week. In one sense, it's a week like any other. We go about our business. But in another sense, it's unlike any other work week. The Sacred Triduum looms: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday. So our minds engage now both with practical matters our jobs require along with our recollection of The Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. While we can't ignore our work, it's important that we not become so absorbed in the daily grind as to keep Our Lord's Passion out of sight, out of mind. Here's something to help us consider His Passion in a ma ..read more

Some thoughts from last Palm Sunday to bring to work this Holy Week:   With Palm Sunday, Holy Week begins. Our Lenten discipline has brought us now to this most important sacred week. Easter may be peeking over the horizon, but we've still got some final steps to take before we set off the spiritual fireworks and bask in the the glory of Easter Sunday and - if we're wise - the entirety of the Octave of Easter. Of course, the temptation may arise to throw all our Lenten discipline to the wind. The result of such a rash and hasty decision my be dissipation - a laxity that opens the door fo ..read more