Look East for the kind of faith that long endures
So would you die for your faith? We may never know that answer but it is being asked many times over in the Near and Middle East and in Africa and India.
Articles by Father Michael Shields
You know you’re called to be a priest when…
A young man discerning his future wrote me to ask a question: “How do you know you are called to the priesthood.”
Fr. Shields: What iPhones reveal about our search for meaning & purpose
The created purpose of a smart phone is to communicate. So if all apps were destroyed and all you had left was a simple phone, would it still be a phone? Yes. And would it meet its purpose? Yes.
Without a close friendship with Christ the priesthood is dead
Everything changes when we have this deep friendship with Jesus. But if we don’t have a deep personal friendship with him, our priesthood is dead.
Fr. Shields: It is time for us to go public with the joy of the Gospel
Pope Francis is asking for a public faith, not a private one that only serves oneself. You are not to become holy for yourself but for others. We are called to preach, teach, defend and share the joy of the Gospel.
Confessions of a weak priest: I don’t have it all together
CatholicAnchor.org Embracing our weakness means embracing our identity as a “clay jar” so that all power may be seen as belonging to God, not us. This means enduring insults without retaliation and suffering calamity without bitterness. Weakness means depending on God for our strength. Personally, I am too weak to not have brother priests in my…
We cannot afford to waste our trials and sufferings
There are two types of people in this world — those suffering and those who will.
The light of Christ pierces the thickest darkness
As the plane took off into the night, my heart cried: “Lord why so much darkness, so much hatred of you and yours?” As I prayed the plane rose over the city, I glanced through the small windows and was overwhelmed at the many lights below.
Dining with the least of my brothers and sisters
One night when we were building our church in Magadan, Russia, in 2000, I woke up after a terrible nightmare. I had seen the church finished but it was empty and cold. No people. I woke up in sweats and literally fell to my knees and begged God to not let this happen. I wanted a church full of activity and people of all kinds.
Suffering offered to God is not meaningless
Redemptive suffering happens when human suffering is offered up in union with the Passion of Jesus. At that point it can remit the just punishment for one’s sins or for the sins of another.