From the heart of Deacon Doug.
Two weeks ago we laid to rest our good friend Jim back in Indiana. Last night his wife Pauline died following two strokes. We will be heading back to do another funeral of a very dear friend who has been the friend of my wife since sixth grade !! Eternal rest Grant unto Read more
In our parish we have a man whose son was miraculously healed by Padre Pio as a young boy. All the doctors in the U.S. said he could not be healed. The doctors at UCLA told them to take him home and keep him comfortable until he dies. Well this parishioner had a Read more
One of the greatest gifts we have is the gift of family. God never intended us to be alone. When Adam in the Garden of Eden was lonely even though he had all creature comforts, God created a suitable helpmate for him and said, “It is not good for man to be Read more
There are times when we ask ourselves, why doesn’t God see things the way I see them ? Why doesn’t he answer my request ? Why doesn’t he heal the loved one I’m praying for ? Why doesn’t he fix the mess our world seems to be in ? It would Read more
Most of us are very familiar with the parable of the sower and the seeds. Some seeds fell on good ground and produced much fruit, and others fell on rocky ground or a foot path where they withered and died. I would say within us there are a wide variety of soil Read more
The central truth of our faith is that Jesus rose from the dead. The question for us is: is this just an intellectual exercise to reflect upon, or has the reality of what God has done really changed our lives ? Jesus wants us to experience the power of his resurrection in Read more
I would guess all of us remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard about the attack on the World Trade Center. During the days following the terrorist bombing we thought a lot about God and our churches were full. We thought about our own death because any Read more
I have not sent out a reflection in a couple of days for two reasons. First our server at church was being redone and we couldn’t send a message for a few days. Second, one of my very best friends in Indiana died, and Sheila and I rushed back there to do Read more
If someone hurts us, we seem to be wired to get even. Our instinctive reaction is to want to hurt them back. So how is it even possible to love our enemies as Jesus asks us to do ? The truth is we can’t do it on our own. It’s only possible by Read more
There are some people in this world who can fly anywhere they want at the drop of a hat. They can buy whatever they want, whenever they want. They can pretty much do whatever they want to do. That’s not the case for most of us. Yet all of us Read more