‘The 72 is you’ — A call to true discipleship in Christ
Jesus says that if anyone would come after me, he must follow me. There are not two kinds of Christians — regular Christians and disciples. To be a Christian is to be a disciple.
Articles by Father Michael Shields
It’s time to do church differently: ‘God does not have grandchildren’
We used to believe a baptized child would seamlessly pick up the faith of the family and develop a Catholic identity through to adulthood. What was missing in this paradigm was a conversion to Christ.
Pray for revival from the ‘decay within the church’
I do realize that all great revivals in the church have had two aspects — renewal in the Eucharist and renewal in the priesthood.
How do we become people who are full of joy?
Joy in not in the new job, a better salary or even in that “perfect” someone. Indestructible, deep-down joy is not in what happens but in who created the happenings.
After the Resurrection, life can never be the same again
Look upon the cross — the cross worked. It changed the very core of human life. The world is different after our Savior died for us and rose from the dead.
‘Let me suffer and love with you Lord. Only with you’
I am in exile from my beloved Russia. I know that God’s plans for me are for my good, so what must I do to embrace this time? I must love and suffer.
Deep boredom is really a sickness within the soul
But there is a deeper boredom that is really a disease of our time. As 20th century author Reinhardt Kuhn observed, boredom “is not one theme among others; it is the dominant theme … a modern plague.”
Denying objective truth wounds — the Gospel heals
Relativism is the philosophy that says you have your truth and I have mine. This is the lie of our age — a philosophy that claims there is no objective truth outside ourselves.
How might we bring our kids and loved ones back home to the church?
Over the past 25 years, one of the most common prayer request I hear deals with a son or daughter who has left the church, or a husband or parent who no longer attends Mass, or a grandchild who has drifted from the faith.
It is past time to start a new sexual revolution
We were the 1960s folks with freedom and love. How did we end up like this?