Grace of the Sacraments and the Beauty and the Beast

Last updated on: May 8, 2025 at 6:33 am By Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

Unity and Communion: A Gospel Invitation Today’s Gospel (cf. Jn. 10:27-30) reveals the intimate union between the Father and the Son – a union that invites us to communion through sacramental grace. We have to learn to understand the sacramental nature of the world, as literature often communicates. For example, we could look at the sacramentality of Beauty and the Beast. First, we have to understand what a sacrament is. What is a Sacrament? Encountering Christ through Grace Celebrated worthily... Read more

What Trump Can Learn from St. Joseph the Worker

Last updated on: May 1, 2025 at 2:02 pm By Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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During his campaign, President Donald Trump touted his support for work and promised to support working-class America. Such a promise raised eyebrows, coming from a real estate magnate such as himself. Growing division in the country has made people suspicious of any willingness on the part of the wealthy to help the poor and the middle class. Trump’s claim to support workers should be evaluated not just economically, but morally, against models like St. Joseph the Worker. The conclusion of... Read more

From the Pain of Betrayal to the Security of Love

Last updated on: April 30, 2025 at 7:33 am By Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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We all feel at certain points in our lives the sting of betrayal, and sometimes even have the misfortune of inflicting it on others. Can love overcome failure? This is a question that is in all of our hearts, because we have all seen and lived failures in love. This question also reminds me of a couple I attended to once in marriage counseling. Pain of Betrayal The pain of betrayal was evident as I sat across from them. They... Read more

Locked Doors to Open Hearts: Divine Mercy Sunday

Last updated on: April 26, 2025 at 12:13 pm By Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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Did Pope John Paul II feel fear? One of the refrains of his papacy was “Be not afraid.” Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power. Help the Pope and all those who wish to serve Christ and with Christ’s power to serve the human person and the whole of mankind. Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems,... Read more

Heaven, Hope, and Holiness

Last updated on: April 19, 2025 at 1:33 pm By Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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The Resurrection of Jesus that we celebrate on Easter calls us to have hope in the greatest goal of our lives: attaining joy in heaven forever with God. “Joy is the serious business of heaven”, wrote C.S. Lewis. The Resurrection of Jesus is not only the cornerstone of our faith, it is an invitation to a joy that this world cannot offer and too often forgets. We believe we long for pleasure and comfort, but deep down, we hunger for... Read more

Does God Suffer? What the Cross Really Reveals

Last updated on: April 15, 2025 at 7:48 am By Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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Does God Suffer? Christ chose to suffer on the cross. This challenges our understanding of human existence since suffering challenges and changes our understanding of the world. In July 1943, a terrified fourteen-year-old boy watched helplessly as thousands of bombs fell on his hometown. He and his friends had been conscripted only a few months earlier to operate an anti-aircraft battery built on a platform in the middle of a lake. With their radar jammed, their gun was useless against... Read more

Suffering: It is Better to Cry than to Be Angry

Last updated on: April 11, 2025 at 6:16 am By Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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Today, on Palm Sunday, the Church gives us a curious liturgy. We go from jubilation to suffering. In a single day, we commemorate the Triumphant Procession of Jesus into Jerusalem and his ignominious death on the Cross. The Crowd’s Contradiction We hear the crowds shout joyfully, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest (Lk. 19:38). Later, in the Gospel of the Passion, we hear the crowds shout... Read more

Forgetting What God Tells Us to Forget

Last updated on: April 5, 2025 at 2:41 pm By Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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Sometimes God wants us to forget, and sometimes God wants us to remember. Danny Haag tells his testimony in the book God Can Use Others to Save You. “I had abused alcohol from the age of 13 to 19,” Haag said. “The last straw occurred when I was in Monterey, California for basic training when I was 19. Like many times before it, I was getting drunk again with a buddy, and we got so drunk we couldn’t find our... Read more

Our Pope of Mercy

Last updated on: March 29, 2025 at 1:05 pm By Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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Pope John Paul II is the “Pope of mercy.” This comes through very clearly in his 1980 encyclical Dives in Misericordia. Pope John Paul II practiced mercy throughout his life. He lived through two totalitarian regimes yet never learned to hate. Six months after publishing his encyclical on mercy, two bullets from attempted assassin Ali Agca’s gun nearly ended his life. He showed his mercy was real when he visited the would-be murderer in jail and pardoned him from the... Read more

Finding Holy Ground Every Day

Last updated on: March 23, 2025 at 5:00 am By Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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Our recent Duke Catholic Center mission trip to Cancun was both a service trip and a pilgrimage to holy ground. The first thing we did was visit the shrine of Our Lady, Undoer of Knots. This particular title of Mary, the Mother of God, has come into vogue under the papacy of Pope Francis. While he was studying for his doctorate in Germany, he was able to visit the original chapel in Regensburg and afterward took the devotion back to... Read more