Weekly insight and thoughts from Fr. Damian Zuerlein
Pastor’s Letter 8.2.20
Dear Friends,Since I am on retreat this week, I offer for your reflection a passage from Rabbi Abraham Heschel’s writing on prayer. We can learn so much from our Jewish brothers and sisters.“To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain the sense of the mystery...
Pastor’s Letter 7.26.20
Dear Friends, On Wednesday of this week I will begin my annual retreat. I am doing it a bit earlier this year because COVID has made for limited options when it comes to retreats. Fr. Norm Hunke will be covering the Masses for me in my absence. The Catholic Church has...
Pastor’s Letter 7.19.20
Dear Friends, There is an incident in the life of Jesus that has always challenged me to think carefully about my present way of being. Here is the incident as described in the Gospel of Matthew: When he came to the other side, to the territory of the Gadarenes, two...
Pastor’s Letter 7.12.20
How can we best help you be a disciple during these challenging days? How can we help you continue to grow in your relationship with Jesus?
Pastor’s Letter 7.5.20
Dear Friends, I have had the pleasure of doing two sabbaticals during my priesthood. The first was for six months in Leuven, Belgium and the second was for three months in Israel. In both cases, there were students in the program from many different countries. We had...
Pastor’s Letter 6.27.20
Dear friends, During these long summer days, I invite us to learn from the founder of another of our local religious communities. I frequently use St. Ignatius for insight, but we can learn much from St. Benedict, too. As a young man, Benedict left his hometown of...
Pastor’s Letter 6.21.20
Racism is a sin that constitutes a serious offence against God. The Second Vatican Council reminds us that ‘We cannot truly pray to God the Father of all if we treat any people in other than brotherly fashion, for all men are created in the image of God
Pastor’s Letter 6.14.20
Dear Friends, An article in the Wall Street Journal this week reported that family grocery bills were increasing. That was because food prices, especially meat prices, were increasing and people were eating at home more frequently. I know that Jan, who takes...
Pastor’s Letter 6.7.20
Dear Friends, One of the challenges of the last several months has been the shift from a busy, crowded, and noisy world to one of separation, quiet and rest. For many of us, that shift was a foreign experience. We have learned to fear the thought of isolation. The...
Pastor’s Letter 5.31.20
Dear Friends, As I write this letter, the streets of some neighborhoods in Minneapolis are filled with rioters. There are stores being broken into and burned. All in reaction to the death of a man caused by four police officers. The video of the encounter shows the...
Pastor’s Letter 5.24.20
Dear Friends, For many of us, life is slowly returning to a more normal routine and for others, life remains a place of quarantine because we are part of an “at risk” group. Either way, we continue to find ourselves with “extra time” on our hands because we...
Pastor’s Letter 5.17.20
Dear Friends, One of the benefits of the present health crisis is that I have more time to read than normal and the quiet to read poetry as it needs to be read. So let me share with you something I recently read, a brief reflection and a poem from the poet and...