Vita Dulce

This is one of the favorite pictures I have of my wife. It was taken in a small French town near the Mediterranean coast on our honeymoon. I don't know why I like it so much ... I just do.

This particular devotion and feast have been familiar to me since I was a young child. I don't know if there was any elderly German relative who did not have a depiction of the Sacred Heart hanging somewhere in their home. Over time, the meaning of this feast has become more clear to me: The Heart of God has beat in The Heart of Man. The essence of life is to allow this reality to be present in each of our lives; To allow the Heart of God to beat within each one of us.

May is the Month of Mary It is fitting that this occurs in Spring  a time of renewal and new life. Pray the Rosary today and open yourself up to Renewal and New Life as She leads you closer to Her Son - Jesus Christ. "Do whatever he tells you to."                      (John 2:5)

Joseph Kautzman Ht. 19.5", Wt. 6.4 lbs. Named after St. Joseph but already sporting minature sideburns like his other role model Joseph Mauer of the TWINS!!!

Easter Season When 40 days in the desert through the Light of the Resurrection lead to a NEW DAY in the Son

Dali's "Christ of St. John of the Cross"is one of the most phenomenal depictions surrounding Good Friday that I've seen.  The figure of Christ dominating the other-wordly upper portion of the portrait presents this as the 'cosmic event' that it truly was; yet the tranquil and serene image of the fisherman and the sea beneath connotes the 'here and now' dimension as the figure by the boat soaks up to his ankles in the sea. The question is whether the figure below is one about to become a 'fisher of men' following in the footsteps of the Lord or is he simply unaware and going about his daily business separated entirely and failing to allow this event to transform him by means of the cosmic drama that transpires above.  Good Friday is a day to ask myself:  which of these two men am I? [For effect scroll up or down to observe only the top or bottom half of the work.  They could be seen as two entirely separate pieces.  I guess that is the cen...

As As the deer longs for running streams, so my soul longs for you, my God.            (Psalm 42)

HOLY THURSDAY I have always known this day as 'Holy Thursday' and wondered why some called the day 'Maundy Thursday'.   I found out that the root of this tradition comes because it was on this day that Christ gave his 'mandatum' (mandate) to follow his example by going out to wash the feet of others. It was also the day he gave the mandate: 'Do this in remembrance of me.'  A command to celebrate the agape meal, the meal of love that he established and wanted the community to continue so that they could continue to recieve and become for the world the 'Body of Christ.' It is suitable today, then, to consider how each of these'mandatums' cannot be understood without the other: 1. We must continue to celebrate and to recieved the Eucharist as Christ requested (and which we know the earliest Church immediately began to do each day of the Resurrection) [1 Cor. 11:23-26] 2.  We must go out to 'wash the feet' of our brothers and sis...

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY : It may be a sign that a man is becoming more mature and sacramentally aware when he rests at the end of the day after cleaning his garage and thinks to himself  'it is good.'

In the end, whom will have a life more 'well-lived': one who believes that man 'determines' truth or one who believes that man 'discovers' truth ?

" We must carry the cross Before the cross carries us ."         Paul Claudel

" ... once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers " (Luke 22:32) The Gospel today for Palm Sunday touched me greatly. So many elements of the reading that I don't seem to remember hearing ... And the image of Peter stood out from amongst the rest; A man who was not so strong as to never fall, But strong enough to lift himself And turn his tear-filled eyes back to the LORD.

At reconciliation this Saturday I was challenged by the priest to 'find God where he is unexpected'. As we begin Holy Week, I stumbled upon this wonderful artistic depiction of the Stations of the Cross: http://www.stjames-cathedral.org/Prayer/jkblstations/stations.htm To find God in the midst of suffering is a most 'unexpected' place.