Saint Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church

Image result for matthew 5:17-19Jesus’ attitude towards the Law is not obvious at first sight.  It would seem on the one hand that He moves away from a strict observance of the details of the Law and towards a deeper conversion of heart and adherence to the principles of the Law.  “You strain out the gnat but swallow a camel!”, “You have heard it said[…], I say to you […]”  However, in today’s Gospel, Jesus makes sure that His insistence on the essence of the Law does not encourage His followers to abandon the details altogether. read more

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Sacred Heart – by Brie Schulze 10″x10″ oil on wood panel

The human heart is this most noble and precious organ from which life and love flow like blood through our veins.  Our heart is our hidden core, our most important, intimate, and personal identity.  If you never discover someone’s heart, you will never really know them – and even when you’ve known and loved someone for a long time their heart remains hidden like a secret that they must choose to reveal again and again and you must choose to rediscover constantly.  Our heart remains hidden within our body, and it is only by loving and becoming vulnerable that it can be know by others. read more

Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Sketch by Brie Schulze

The hidden figures of the Visitation reveal a great mystery. Jesus and St. John the Baptist are both powerfully present and active well before they are even born. For St. John the Baptist this is a great grace – it was by no human quality or disposition that he came to know and rejoice at the voice of the mother of his Savior. The divine gift of prophesy and the motion of the Holy Spirit are the only possible explain for John’s in utero dance of jubilation. The most important events in our own personal history of salvation are similar: as glad and as free as we were to come to know our savior in a more meaningful way, it was always, “a total God move.” Even the gift of prophesy which helps us to see the way God is moving in the world in a mysteriously clear way is still God moving first our mind. We can cleverly attribute the text of the Psalm 138 as Jesus speaking to John the Baptist, read more