Today the Church honors St. Teresa of Avila, one of the doctors of the Church. I’ve always admired St. John of the Cross whom Teresa called her spiritual father. As a result, Teresa has been like the neighbor who comes over a few times a year for a visit. One quote from Teresa stands out for me, “The closer one approaches to God, the s...

We are launching a new podcast at work called Ready, Willing and Able. It’s designed to be a help for Catholic parents and in particular for those with kids in Catholic schools. In our pilot, we discussed several keys for families who desire to pass on the faith at home. A key: praying each night as a family. If covid taught families o...

We try, as a family, to pray at night. This is as simple as praying the doxology or offering some petitions. It’s rarely extravagant and often feels mundane. As a father and husband, I often feel inadequate to lead this weekly and daily process. We miss nights. We’re tired. Someone has an evening commitment, etc. We try to avoid missin...

The default for many Catholics is to pray prayers of petition and supplication. We ask for things and ask for others. This is good- there is a lot of need out there. A lot of hurting people. But I wonder how God feels when we show up, day after day, with our laundry list of people and things. I wonder if He wants more, if He desires de...

Servant of God Dorothy Day is so utterly honest. In one of her many journals, she writes the following, “Thoughts at Mass. During the day I get so tied up with such a multitude of things to do, and people to see and always that sense of being able to do so little, and that so badly. And after all the Mass is the most important work of ...

“God wills for us the present moment.” These words, written by Servant of God Dorothy Day in 1937 can be found in her journal. The lines before and after speak of hard work, poverty and the many demands on her life. The fact is that we “have” right now. We are in the present moment which the Lord is allowing to happen. It may be busy. ...

I have a feeling that July 13th, 2024 will be one of those days, years from now, that you’ll recall where you were when you found out that former president Trump was shot. I was in my kitchen and my daughter texted me. Where were you when you found out? In the hours that have passed, I’ve been overly curious about so many details relat...

You’re attending Mass. You’re praying the Angelus. You’re reading the daily Mass readings. You’re saying grace before a meal. But are you praying? Are you humbly speaking to the Lord from your heart? Are you pausing to listen? Are you sitting in deep silence for 5-10 minutes? While there is certainly a mystery to the practice of religi...

Today, the Church celebrates the Body and Blood of Jesus. The Church, similar to how it does with Holy Family Sunday and Holy Trinity Sunday, holds up for us a particular aspect of our faith. It’s up to homilists to help us make a practical application of the feast to our daily lives. As that may or may not happen in your local parish,...

I’m part of a men’s group called the Men of Saint Joseph. Sponsored by the Shrine of Saint Joseph (in Stirling, NJ), the group was born during covid times. Guys could not gather in person so we used Zoom to meet. Three years later, the group still gathers and it’s quite meaningful. We’ve learned to combine in-person events (about three...

How do you feel about your morning prayer routine? For years, I felt that I was giving God the scraps of my energy, heart and mind. I would pray but that came after some internet browsing on Catholic news sites. I told myself that these “faith-related” articles were fine, just part of my morning routine. As it would turn out, one artic...

A tough Lent. Sickness, hospital visits for family members, the death of Cary’s half sister. While typical Lents would feature some earnest sacrifice of material goods and an extra dose of liturgical traditions, this one took on its own personality. And a personality that we did not enjoy. We eagerly waited for the finish line. The wai...

The world enters into the Holy Triduum today. For the next three (or so) days, we will reflect on the Lord’s Passion, death and resurrection. For Catholics, Orthodox Christians and others who take liturgy seriously, these next few days are rich with symbols, traditions and ancient rites. As you know, I love books and especially, spirit...

Of all of the YouTube videos I watch in a week, most are related to a Boston sports team or a productivity app. This one however, stopped me in my tracks. How quiet is your life? -Mike — Michael St. Pierre, Ed.D. www.mikestpierre.com

When we pray, we seldom are focused perfectly on the Lord. Rather, we are busied by many things. This noise is both within us and outside of us. On the inside track, we worry, fret, are distracted, and unsettled. Outside of us, we see things, hear things, feel things. In prayer, all of these issues come to bear upon us. They push down,...

This post isn’t about math, it’s about the freedom that comes when you enjoy less. Our culture isn’t big on less. It craves more, bigger, better, and newer. The idea of “enjoying less” feels, at least in American terms, like an oxymoron. Lately, I’ve been looking to do something very simple in the morning: get out the door with fewer s...

During a recent trip to see my father, I perused (who uses that word!) his bookshelf and found Robert Wicks’ Riding the Dragon: 10 Lessons for Inner Strength in Challenging TImes. The book made its way back home with me to PA and I’ve been reading this little gem over the past few weeks. A bit of backstory. I’ve been a fan of Dr. Wicks...

We tell ourselves stories all of the time. This starts, unfortunately, at a young age. • I’m not good at math. • I don’t have a good attention span. • I’m not artistic. • I’m just a messy person at heart. • I’m not athletic. • I’m born late for things. • I’m shy. The list goes on and on. We do this in prayer as well although we are sel...

It’s been almost four months since I began a new job as the Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Allentown. A blessed time for me as a professional- new challenges, great people and lots of systems to learn. My podcasting has paused and my blog posts have slowed. There have been plenty of times when I’ve wondered if I still hav...

In Tuesday’s morning prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours, Isaiah 38:19 tells fathers to tell their sons of God’s faithfulness. For me, this was one of those moments when God hit me between the eyes, “Mike, have YOU told your kids about how you came to Christ?” I decided at that point to use night prayers with the family to tell my kids ...

As I’m in a lot (and I mean a lot) of meetings each week, I get to hear a lot of prayers. Prayers for discernment, prayers of petition, prayers to calm a situation. I find this fascinating, listening to how individuals and groups of people pray. You learn something (probably not that much but something nonetheless) about the person who...

Do you ever feel distracted at Mass? We attended the 10am Mass at our parish this past Sunday. After arriving a few minutes early (not always a given when you have kids), I should have been later focused on the Lord and the privilege of worshiping Him. Instead, I felt distracted. I was distracted. A grandmother sat behind her family an...

Patrick Lencioni is one of the most prolific authors of the past 25 years. His books on business and leadership have shaped a generation of knowledge workers. I still remember the first time I read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and its core principles still resonate today. Great books are like that. Through a board assignment, I got ...

So much of The Quiet Life is about subtraction. St. Teresa of Avila famously said, “The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes.” This process of a simpler, quieter, leaner spiritual life isn’t easy. There’s just so much noise that we allow into our lives. That noise starts on the outside and eventually creeps into our he...

Today’s Gospel is a tough one for homilists. Which part of the parable from Matthew 13 do you emphasize? This reflection provides some helpful background on Biblical farming and the idea of poisoning another’s crop with weed infiltration. It’s worth a read for you RoundUp fans who despise the weeds in your garden. No matter how you loo...

We live in a noisy world and while this isn’t particularly “new”, it’s become harder to maintain a clear, quiet mind. Think of the last time you arrived early for Mass. Those few quiet minutes were likely filled with head noise, i.e. distractions and thoughts. The fact is that our constant consumption of media seeps into our heads and ...

What do you love about your prayer life? Is it the liturgical moments when you are in community, praising God? Or, in the quiet of your home, do you savor the still mornings that precede a full schedule and hefty todo list? This article brought a smile to my face called What it Means to be Home. The author cherishes the littlest of thi...

When I lived in New Jersey, I enjoyed sports talk radio, WFAN on a daily basis. While I’m a Boston fan, the New York/New Jersey radio station offered up more than enough raw meet for even the casual fan. A typical line when folks would call in would be, “Hey it’s Phil from the Bronx, first time long time…” and then launch into his ques...

How do you capture important conversations? In the busy world in which we live, it’s easy to have a fantastic conversation and then let it pass into the ether, forgotten in minutes. But what if there was a better way, a more intentional way of remembering the contents of that conversation? It’s no secret that I’m a proponent of spiritu...

As a layman, I’ve struggled through the Liturgy of the Hours (or as I’ll refer to it, the Office) over the past few months. Having subscribed to Word on Fire’s monthly subscription, I figured I’d give it a try for the first time in decades. $7 a month felt like a worthwhile experiment. My experience has gone like this: • Month one: thi...