News - April 2026 RSS Feed

Hello my friends! I love you! This weekend, I'm looking forward to speaking about our Children's Faith Formation program. We have the largest program in the diocese*, and I love to brag about the amazing children, families, and volunteers who make everything possible.

I did it again! I opened up my phone and looked at the news. It didn’t fill me with joy or peace; instead, it left me feeling disheartened, discouraged, and even a little angry. And those feelings are on top of my own personal anxieties and struggles! So why do I do it? Why do I continue to open up my phone and go down the rabbit hole that is the news? I realize with today’s Gospel that I am in good company. I imagine that the disciples on the road to Emmaus were feeling very similar feelings, since I know that only last week I, too, “stopped, and [looked] downcast.”

Did you notice in the recent World Baseball Classic there was a mercy roll for the early rounds of the tournament? A game is called if a team leads by 15 or more runs after 5 innings or 10 or more runs after 7 innings. When I hear of this mercy rule, it tells me the tournament organizers are giving up on the losing team because they think the team doesn’t have a chance of winning the ballgame. I remember the mercy rule when I played baseball in Little League. I hated it. I did not want to concede until the final out of the game. I didn’t want anyone to give up on me!

Happy Easter everyone! Today and for the next fifty days we celebrate the greatest event in human history. Jesus Christ rose from the dead and He continues to rise in the lives of his followers. The evidence of his resurrection is compelling and stunning. Not only is it reported in all four of the gospels but, according to St. Paul, the risen Christ “appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at once" (1 Corinthians 15:6). His appearances compelled Christians to spread this Good News around the world for twenty centuries. They were not only proclaiming that Jesus had risen from the dead, but also that we can rise with him to everlasting life.