Today, I went to the third floor of Division 8, RTU (residential treatment unit). The officer who accompanied me was sitting in a chair across the hall when I was talking one on one with the prisoners. They come out, I write down their names and booking numbers, and then I ask them how I…
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You may not know this but Mexicans have a tradition where they start celebrating 10 days before Christmas. When you go to a posada you will see kids dressed up as Mary, Angels, Shepherds and the Three Wise Men. The participants go around with everyone and do a procession and sing that’s called Pidiendo Posada.…
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Most everyone in the parish knows about our giving tree. Just in case you don’t, here’s what it’s about. In our neighborhood we have a wonderful place called El Valor. They take care of children and adults with disabilities. There are 300 children in their program, and for more than 8 years our parish has…
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Alpha is a series of conversations about things we all question in life: Why do bad things happen to good people? What’s the purpose of life? What’s next? If you’re looking for a judgment-free space to ask hard questions and share your own opinion, there’s a place for you. Commit to your faith this year
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A little while ago I posted a little story about visiting the jail, and how great the interaction was with the incarcerated person. Today I visited the jail again, like I usually do on Thursday mornings. One of the kids working in our coffee shop commented, “How nice,” when I told her about the visits. …
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The picture you see here is Memo’s hand. You can click read more for a little movie. Memo’s not his real name, and when I talked with him about this reflection he said it would be ok to write it but I had to change his name. I took the picture last night when…
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What’s with the eight legs, anyway? And what does that have to do with parish leadership? Well, we’ve done a lot of reading around here about leadership structures. Trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t work, and why. I think we read books about leadership among the Navy Seals. Or maybe it was…
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One of the qualities of our pocket parish is that lots of people have keys to the place. I guess it’s worthwhile to define what a pocket parish is. It’s what we have at our parish. We have a small (by Chicago standards these days) parish of about 600 families. Our “pocket parish” doesn’t meet…
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