Father Michael’s Blog
Say the Lord’s Prayer Several Times Each Day
In this, the fourth of our ongoing series focusing on one of Fr. Thomas Hopko’s 55 Maxims for Christian Living each week, we look at his suggestion to Say the Lord’s Prayer several times each day. This week’s reflection comes from Fr. Tom himself, who expounds on the deep meaning of this essential prayer in […]
Have a Keepable Rule of Prayer, Done by Discipline
In the third of our reflections on the Fr. Thomas Hopko’s 55 Maxims for Christian Living, we focus on how to “Have a keepable rule of prayer done by discipline.” A “prayer rule” is simply one’s standard, daily prayer routine, just like a workout routine at the gym or the preparations you make when having […]
Pray As You Can, Not As You Think You Must
In our series of posts focusing on Fr. Thomas Hopko’s “55 Maxims for Christian Living,” we focus this week on Maxim #2: Pray as you can, not as you think you must. We all know we should pray, but do we know why? Today’s reflection, from Seminarian Jeremiah in his blog at orthodoxroad.com, gives us […]
Be Always with Christ and Trust God in Everything
Like many of you, I find myself with not enough time to do the things I need to. With this in mind, I’ll be taking a break from writing my weekly blog for a season, but instead will provide some of the best writings I find on living our lives as Christians in these […]
Stupid and Smart
Even though the roads were treacherous here in West Michigan yesterday, I went out for my rounds of house blessings and visitations. My thought was that if I: 1) was careful enough, 2) checked ahead for the road conditions for whatever neighborhood I was traveling to, and 3) didn’t do anything stupid, I would be […]
Injured Egos
WARNING: THIS BLOG POST APPEARS TO BE ONLY ABOUT FOOTBALL. NON-FOOTBALL FANS CAN SKIP TO PARAGRAPH THREE, WHERE THE REAL SUBSTANCE OF THE POST BEGINS. FOOTBALL FANS, CONTINUE READING HERE. After Sunday’s Conference championship games we now know who will play in this year’s Super Bowl. Since my Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t even make the playoffs […]
Inner Peace
Last week we were challenged to tear down the walls between the parts of our life in which we look for peace and the parts of our life where we are-or are not-willing to make spiritual efforts, then we truly have the opportunity to find the peace we crave so deeply. This week we continue […]
Siloed Thinking
This may be a little weird but I’m going to present a large introduction to a relatively small excerpt, written by modern spiritual giant.Before I do that, though, I have to spend time setting it up because there’s a particular reason why I’m sharing this specific quotation. After this week’s introductory comments I’ll share Part […]
Ten New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year! Before we put too much emphasis on our our temporal life (weight loss, budgeting, etc.) for our New Year’s resolutions, let’s consider some SPIRITUAL resolutions. These come to us from Fr. George Shalhoub and our sister parish of St. Mary in Livonia, MI, to whom we offer our sincere thanks. I encourage us […]
Humility: The Real Meaning Behind Christmas
Christ is Born! This week’s reflection comes to us from Fr. Joseph Abouid of St. George, El Paso, Texas, where this reflection was published in the El Paso Herald-Post. We thank Fr. Joseph for his wise words, which I hope will inspire you as they inspired me. –Fr. Michael When we think of the Christmas […]
Just Turn it Off
Far and away, the best film I saw in 2018 was the documentary entitled “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” chronicling the life and work of Fred Rogers of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” I was one of those millions of children that Mister Rogers helped navigate through the difficult process of our growing up. He spent time talking […]
Regaining a Proper Perspective
It was December of 1968, a year marked by violence, warfare, and the dashing of hope emanating from the double blow of the assassinations of both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. The rise in power of the Soviet Union seem to be an unstoppable juggernaut threatening what was left of the peace […]
