Weekly insight and thoughts from Fr. Damian Zuerlein
Pastor’s Letter 3.10.19
Temptations to eat when he was hungry, to have power and glory on a worldly plane, and to have freedom from physical harm. These are the desires we all face – to have our basic human needs met.
Pastor’s Letter 3.3.19
Dear Friends, Our Lenten journey begins this week. In the 2,000 year history of the Catholic Church we have learned that the only way to truly appreciate Easter is to journey with Jesus through Lent. If we come to Easter without Lent, without Good Friday, then we will...
Pastor’s Letter 2.24.19
Dear Friends, I have been asked to write about this topic from several parishioners and recently I received an email from someone who decided to leave our parish because of it – is it permissible to carry on a conversation with other people during Mass? Those of you...
Pastor’s Letter 2.17.19
Dear Friends, The gospel today can be a bit challenging and confusing. Why would Jesus say that the poor are blessed? The gospel passage is similar to a statement made frequently by the United States Bishop’s Conference that there is a “preferential option for the...
Pastor’s Letter 2.10.19
Dear Friends, My students in the lower grades at All Saints reminded me that Valentine’s Day was coming up this week and invited me to come to their parties. I warned them that I probably would not have a Valentine card or candy for each of them. They would just have...
Pastor’s Letter 2.3.19
Dear Friends, Years ago, I read a book by Parker Palmer entitled, The Promise of Paradox. The book offered spiritual reflections on ministry and the challenges of living as a disciple of Jesus. Mr. Palmer had gotten the ideas for the book from Fr. Thomas Merton, a...
Pastor’s Letter 1.27.19
Dear Friends, Social media and network news all covered an event in Washington this past week where a group of Catholic High School students were in a confrontation with two different groups protesting at the Lincoln Memorial as they waited for their bus to pick them...
Pastor’s Letter
Dear Friends, It is commonplace today in television shows, movies, books and music to find religion absolutely absent as if it did not exist and people never go to church. I am not sure when this began to happen, but it is always a surprise when we do run into some...
Pastor’s Letter 1.13.19
Dear Friends, I am just finishing a vacation in Belize and will be returning to Omaha tomorrow. Since I am not in my “composing a letter mode,” I am offering you a reflection out of Ireland (from Youth 2000) about today’s feast of the Baptism of Jesus: “Almost four...
Pastor’s Letter 1.6.19
Dear Friends, Pope Francis gave a beautiful homily at the Christmas Mass in Rome. Here is a bit of the homily: Bethlehem: the name means house of bread. In this “house”, the Lord today wants to encounter all humankind. He knows that we need food to live. Yet he also...
Pastor’s Letter 12.30.18
Dear Friends, The busyness of Christmas may be slowing down for you or perhaps, with the need to meet up with all the members of the family, it may still be going on this weekend and into January. People might think that it used to be more peaceful during the...
Pastor’s Letter 12.23.18
Dear Friends, I was sitting at a restaurant recently with a friend and she noticed the book I had with me. She commented on the title of the book, “How To Be Unlucky,” and asked if that was really the name of the book, and wondered why I would be reading it. I...