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Deacon-structing Faith, Hope and Love
Listening to all the readings at Mass about the end of times at this time of the year makes you wonder if we should be proclaiming them as “the Good News!” Recently while visiting my parents I found a...
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Deacon-structing Mercy: Where are you going?
Two weeks ago we looked at why we need mercy and last week we reflected on Don Francisco’s beautiful song, “Adam, Where Are You?” Last week we also saw what the Church teaches about Original Sin:...
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Deacon-structing Mercy: Justice
mer·cy m?rs?/ noun noun: mercy; plural noun: mercies Compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm. jus·tice j?st?s/ noun noun: justice; plural...
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Deacon-structing WYD: How We Prepare
Delegates from 88 countries participated in the 2nd Preparatory Meeting for WYD Panama 2019. World Youth Day is a monster! That is how I have been describing the work the last couple of months, when...
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Deacon-structing Mission: Social Justice
As I reflected on what I would first share about my time at the 5th Missionary Congress of the Americas that took place in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia last week, I never thought that I would be...
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Deacon-structing: Reading Scripture – Part Two
Paschal Vigil. Photo by Yandry Fernández Perdomo on Cathopic. Last time I tried to make a case for reading Scripture. Our faith teaches that, not only should we read and study Scripture, but we should...
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Deacon-structing the One, True Church
Saint Peter the Apostle holding a gold key. iStock Photo. At a high school reunion shortly after Pope Benedict XVI was elected, I was challenged by a former classmate who is now a United Church...
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Deacon-structing Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery
iStock Photo. February 8th was the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, who was enslaved as a child and brought from Sudan to Italy in the late 19th century. She later became a Canossian Sister. She was...
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Deacon-structing: St. Gregory of Narek
Mosaic of St. Gregory of Narek in the Mekhitarist Monastery on San Lazzaro degli Armeni, Venice. Wikimedia Commons. Some 1000 years ago, Armenian St. Gregory of Narek set out to write what is today...
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Deacon-structing: Excommunication
A bell, a book, and a candle, the traditional symbols used to announce that an excommunication has taken place. Wikimedia Commons. Someone recently asked me why Hitler had not been excommunicated. I...
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Deacon-structing: What is a Heresy?
The condemnation of iconoclasm at the Second Council of Nicaea. Wikimedia Commons. When I was in the seminary, we had a professor who frequently called us heretics when we expressed an opinion or...
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