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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The St Paul Church “Crew” that helped assemble 1,200 Turkey meal baskets for delivery to Families in the Chicagoland area. From left to right: Louie Sosa, Jack Rocha, Cathy Ortiz, Dominic Fejer, Eloy Ortiz, & Jason Zacharias. St Paul Church received 200 of the free Meals for Households in our Community. They distributed them from…
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At dinner the other day I was laughing about the mop situation at our parish. The padre I was eating with suggested I write about the mops, and all the other things that move around the parish. Pots and pans, wringer buckets, mops, hammers and screwdrivers. They all walk around (and sometimes out the door,…
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We have recently lost a beloved parishioner and neighbor, Marie Martincic. Please keep her husband and family in your prayers. Arrangements are as follows: There will be a visitation here at St. Paul beginning at 9:00 on November 19th. We will have a funeral Mass for Marie at 10:00. After the funeral Mass everyone is…
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