Greetings Family,

March 7th is my 61st birthday.  It is also the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor.                   

He was also known as the "Dumb Ox" when he was in the seminary because  his teachers assumed that he did not understand the material.  In reality, he was too humble to speak and answer questions. When he finally did speak, his professors  discovered his genius.

Thomas wrote the most brilliant treatise in the Catholic Church, the Summa Theologica, which attempted to prove the existence of God using reason and faith. This work influenced Catholic thought for hundreds of years up until our day.

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People are interested in demons. In part, this is probably for the same reason people are interested in angels and miracles and appearances of the Blessed Mother: they appeal to our love of the amazing, our fascination with the supernatural. Demons are part of the “special effects” of the spiritual world. We can make two errors when it comes to demons: giving them too little attention, and giving them too much. Denying the existence of demons isn’t wise. It’s like pretending terrorists don’t exist.  It guarantees...

Greetings family!

I was reading a book by C.S. Lewis entitled Mere Christianity. The book is an exposition of the teachings of the Christian faith. In one section of the book, CS Lewis speaks of the importance of community.  He teaches us that a community is the best place to come to know God.  This should seem obvious to people who worship together in a church community....

"This is the time of fulfillment. The reign of God is at hand! Reform your lives and Believe in the gospel!" Mark 1:15   The Lord doesn't want us to go on with this new year without repenting, that is, reforming our lives. When we hear the Lord's call to repentance, we agree that many people need to hear that call. However, the Lord is saying that each of us needs to repent to...

In Samuel's time, the "Church" was not hearing God. "A revelation of the Lord  was uncommon and vision infrequent" (1 Sm 3:1). In addition to being spiritually deaf, it was spiritually blind and asleep  (1 Sm 3:2). This pitiful condition of God's people was nauseating to God (see Rv 3:16), but the Lord did not leave them. The Lord was still present...

     2012 is the beginning of my twelfth year writing Father Tom's Corner.  It has been a special time that  I have been able to spend with you.  I hope that I have been able to minister to some of your needs during these years. I hope to continue for many years to come.

     2012 is going to be an exciting  time for our parish.  St. Joseph's has a new pastor, Father Kris, and we are all looking forward to building up our community for Jesus Christ.   The key to all this is "working together".  This is...

Last Friday was Epiphany Day, January 6 (the twelfth day of  Christmas!!). I have always enjoyed the beautiful Epiphany hymn, "We Three King of Orient Are", "We three kings of Orient are, Bearing gifts we traverse a far, Field and fountain, moor and mountain, Following yonder star, O star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading,...

We stand on the threshold of a new year. Most people will look at the new year as a fresh beginning, as an opportunity to kind of start over, to overcome a habit, or do a better job of something they see as important and that needs...