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.
Articles by Father Michael Shields
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.
There is freedom to be found from porn addiction
Among Christians, 47 percent claim pornography is a major problem in the home. On one porn site in one year people watched 4,392,486,580 hours of pornography. That is the equivalent of every person on the earth watching 12 porn videos.
Christianity offers a ladder like no other religion
Are all religions the same? No. Ask any practicing Jew, Muslim or Christian. Only a secularist would propose this absurdity. It doesn’t mean that religions can’t coexist. They can and have, but only when we acknowledge that they are different. So how is Christianity different from other world religions?
Let us stir up one another to love and good works
It all started when I read an article about Popes Francis’ initiative to provide showers for the homeless. One homeless person reportedly said, “They treat us like friends.” Here in Magadan, Russia, we don’t have many homeless, but we have some folks with handicaps who need care.