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The Virtue of Faith

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“Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith man freely commits his entire self to God. For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will. The righteous shall live by faith. Living faith works through charity.” -Catechism of the Catholic Church 1814

Today’s Gospel is beautiful in its simplicity, as is the theological virtue of faith. I think we can get too inside our own heads sometimes when it comes to God and religion. We build up walls and laws and everything else in between in order to make the faith absurdly complicated and seemingly impossible to live.

In reality, it is simple. Have faith in God and everything He has revealed. When He says He is present in the Eucharist, we believe. When He says He can forgive our sins and make us whole, we believe. When He says He has the power to save us from our wretchedness, we believe.

“But he could never mean those things about me, especially knowing what I have done.” “It seems impossible that Jesus would be humble enough to come in the form of bread and wine to us; maybe it’s just a metaphor.” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that those who believe in Him, everyone except me, will have eternal life.”

And there we are in our heads again. You notice that whenever we try to doubt what God has revealed to us, we put ourselves in place of God. We let him know that He must have made a mistake and we, in our ultimate power and authority, are here to help fix what is broken. And Jesus steps in through today’s Gospel and says stop.

You can almost hear Him saying, “Don’t overcomplicate this. When I say I will give you power, I mean it. When I say I will be with you, I mean it. When I say I love you, I mean it.”

Do we believe it? These are hard truths to grasp for purely human minds, which is why we have to ask for faith. Even the Church is aware that some of her teachings are difficult to understand. In adoration, we often sing, “Faith will tell us Christ is present when our human senses fail.” Our minds are finite, and it can be hard to grasp the infinite unless the infinite shares with us the power to do so. That’s the beauty of faith. We can see as God sees, walk as God walks, love as God loves.

A good priest friend of mine has this gift. When there is a massive problem in his life, he prays and knows that God will answer. He has this incredible faith that Jesus is still the same person who walked on the earth 2,000 years ago, and He always cares. His power has not lessened due to time and age.

I know I need to work on this virtue in my life. I rely on my power and knowledge all too often. Why do we give ourselves such stress? Let’s keep it simple and have faith in God. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Moved with Pity

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Think back to the last time you prayed. Maybe it was a few minutes ago, or maybe it’s been a few days. You might have knelt down on a very used kneeler in a church before our Lord or made the sign of the cross laying comfortable in bed. There are many different ways to pray, but all too often, I think we approach prayer as if it’s a grocery list.

We make a list of the things we have done wrong to ask forgiveness for and the things we want to happen that we ask in petition. I know I am guilty of this where I think through the list and pray on each item as if it’s passing on a conveyor belt. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if it becomes our only form of prayer, I think it turns God into someone who doesn’t truly care.

We can pray through our list of items and make sure we don’t forget anything with the thought that if we forget one, God won’t hear it. We pray over and over for the same things, not seeing God work in our lives because we are so hyperfocused on our list. We get frustrated at the meticulous planning it takes to talk to our God.

I hope I’m not the only one who has done this in the past. The reality is that we can use prayer as a litmus test, “If God doesn’t answer this specific petition in the way that I desire than He is holding out.” But what about the things we don’t pray for? What about the miracles that happen every day in our lives without any petition from us? God is working in our lives every day, and he is often moved to compassion and pity for us, just like he was in the Gospel. You notice, they didn’t ask for healing. It was Christ who was moved to heal.

We have a loving God. He has a perfect will and knows what is ultimately best for us. Sometimes in prayer, we don’t know what is best for ourselves, but God always knows, and it’s in those moments that he goes beyond our prayer and is moved to help us. I invite you today to take a moment and put aside the list. Ask the Holy Spirit to come into your heart and show you all the ways today that God has been moved to pit for you. That He has done miracles in your life. That He does care. When we focus on the reality of the love of God, our prayer is renewed because it’s no longer a list or a chore but a love letter to our God. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Purpose, Focus, Direction

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I love the Gospel reading today because it shows the unmatched power of Jesus as the son of God while at the same time showing his incredible focus for the end goal.

Purpose-focus-direction. These three simple words make all the difference when trying to run a company, work as an employee, raise a family, or be a disciple. Jesus knew this, so he went out and showed us how to accomplish all three as the perfect example.

“For this purpose, I have been sent.”
Jesus knew why he was sent; to bring the good news of the kingdom of God to the world. This shaped all of his ministry and every one of his actions. So what is your purpose? I can ask myself the same question. I don’t just mean the philosophical meaning of existence, but why do you as a person exist? St. John Paul II always reminded us that the fundamental vocation of the human person is love. So how is Jesus calling you to love that is different from everyone else? How is He personally going to transform the world through your little life? Often we think that because God doesn’t need us that our purpose is just to be good and eventually go to heaven. While it is true that God doesn’t need us, he has chosen to need us. He has chosen to communicate His love through the human person, and that includes you. How can you do that better this week, and how can I?

“At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place.”
Jesus also had focus. His purpose transformed his actions, and his attention made it possible. Think about it; we can skim a book, or we can take time and read it slowly, analyzing the words as they fall off the page. In both the instances, the book is read, but in one case the book is retained and affects our life. When we take time to meditate on our purpose, and also take the much needed time to retreat, we can focus even more intensely on the task at hand, to bring the love of God to the world.

“And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”
Jesus knew where he was supposed to go next. He had an idea of what his ministry was going to be and had an end goal in mind. This is crucial if we want our mission to be compelling. We have to have a plan and a way to accomplish it. It’s the same with sports, working out, career, and family life.

God has gifted us all with a personal way to communicate his love to the world. Maybe some can do this through speaking or teaching, some can do it through acts of service, and some can do it through intercession. There will be as many different ways as there are different people. What is your way? Find your purpose, focus on the mission, plan out a direction. If you struggle with any of these three, reread the Gospel today and have hope. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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An Invitation of Love

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I have written about this before, but I absolutely love when God’s love for us is described with marital imagery. As most of you know, having been recently married, it is a time in my life when I can relate to marital themes. It has been said that God wants to marry us spiritually and is sending us a proposal; what we must do is say yes.

Today’s Gospel seems very dark and strict, but it’s not if we really enter into the marital imagery that Jesus is using. Put yourself in the proper mindset here. Imagine your best friend was getting married and you wanted more than anything to attend the ceremony and be there with your friend. You wait for months hoping to receive an invitation, wondering if you are among the list that will be accepted. Finally, the invitation comes, and without a second thought, you get on their website and RSVP, giving what food you would like and how many people will be attending. You let them know you care by quickly telling them you have set aside the time and want to support them.

Now imagine this friend is more of an acquaintance from college or a distant cousin that you don’t really talk to. You know they exist and have been in your life before, but you’ve let that relationship go by the wayside. Now you get the invitation and you may think that this is an inconvenience because at the very least now you need to get them a gift and at the most you are attending another wedding. Maybe you wait to fill out the RSVP in hopes that something else will come up and you will have an excuse or maybe a better friend will invite you to their wedding and you would rather attend that, leaving your friend unanswered.

Now imagine you don’t know this person at all. You get an invitation in the mail, and you wonder if it has been misaddressed because you don’t even recognize the couple in the pictures. You try to find them on Facebook to see if you maybe met through mutual friends, but you can’t find them there either. You have no recollection of ever meeting the couple, and so you tear up the invitation and throw it away.

My simple question for you and myself today is this; which scenario most depicts yours when God sends us his invitation. Do we accept, do we wait for something we think may be better, or do we reject it completely? Let’s pray for the grace to be prepared when God sends us his invitation of love. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Set the World Ablaze

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“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!” -Luke 12:49-50

I can still distinctly remember standing in my scout uniform at attention while the casket of President Gerald R. Ford passed by. The faces that day were a mix of honor, sorrow, and patriotism. I remember the flag waving in the breeze and even at a young age, I knew that this day was important. I was blessed to be able to attend the funeral of a past president as a Boy Scout. This was one of those times we all experience where we have an urge to change the world, be better than we are, or to fight for a noble cause. It was a tangible moment that I can remember made me want to do something big.

Another such moment came when I walked across the stage at graduation. My parents brimming faces and those of my friends, most of which never thought I would actually graduate, and the feeling of accomplishment took me over as I knew I was made for something great.

The most recent time that this inner pursuit took me over was on my wedding day. As I saw my bride walking down the aisle, I knew I wanted to be the best man I could be for her. I wanted to fight as hard as I possibly could to be my best self for my bride.

Fast forward to today and these beuatiful readings. Jesus says it very; clearly, he has come to set the world on fire, and he wishes it was already blazing. Then he mentions the importance of baptism. While all of these moments I recounted were very special to me and changing points in my life, none are so important as the day of my baptism, when I became part of God’s family.

I think it is hard, especially for cradle Catholics, for us to remember our baptism and the power we still receive every day from God. This day should make us want to fight the good fight and run the race. It should make us want to set the world on fire. But fear, despair, loneliness, the day to do of life, and time seem to erode the power of what happened so many years ago. It’s as if God’s grace was on a timer, and every day, the sand comes closer and closer to running out.

Though it can seem this way sometimes, it couldn’t be further from the truth. We need to realize and claim the power that we received on that glorious day when we were made new. We need to remember that it was on that day that we were called to be witnesses to the Gospel and share the love of Christ with the world. It was on that day that we started our journey to sainthood.

So here is my challenge to you. Look up your baptismal records and figure out when exactly you were baptized. Then pray to God and ask him for the grace to always remember that beautiful day and to thank him for the grace he has given you ever since. And finally, let’s all ask God how he has chosen for us to set the world on fire. We all make up a different ember in the fire of faith, what does your ember look like and have you made sure it doesn’t go out? The world needs your light.

From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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From Death to Life

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When reading the book of Genesis, I try to put myself into the perspective of Adam and Eve. Here are two people who had a perfect love with God and each other, they had no suffering, pain, despair, anxiety, stress, loneliness, sin, and the list goes on. They also had no concept of death. We hear in Genesis that God commands them not to eat of the tree, or they will surely die. But imagine what that would have been like for Adam and Eve to hear. They didn’t have an experience of death; they had nothing to compare with it. All they knew or could theorize is that death is the opposite of what they had. It was unknown.

This is taken further in that after the fall they realized they were naked and hid. They hid for many reasons, shame, embarrassment, fear, confusion, but it’s clear that they were now afraid they would use each other. In the beginning, human beings acted only one way, out of love, but now there is a fear of use. This fear came through the rupture between body and soul. After all, what is death besides the soul leaving the body? In the beginning, Adam and Eve could look and see the whole person in all it’s glory, body and soul, after the fall they look and conceal themselves out of fear that they will no longer see a person, but just an object. Not as someone but as something.

All of this is set up in Genesis, but how does it relate to today’s first reading? Well, Adam and Eve changed the course of human history, and death has entered the world. So what’s the cure? If death happens in the body, then there must be some way for the Divine to literally enter into the human experience to transform what was tainted by sin and resurrect it. There must be some way for God to become flesh.

Thankfully, unlike Adam and Eve, we now know the answer is Jesus taking on our bodies, taking the human body to the most extreme and terrible suffering imaginable, conquering it, and rising. Giving death the proverbial kick in the face on Easter morning.

Relate this to the readings of the day. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained. We are perplexed but not driven to despair. We are persecuted but not abandoned and struck down but not destroyed. This is such a beautiful paradox that just like Christ, we must suffer for a time to live for all time. Our bodies are dying more every day to get closer to life.

Last week one of my dear friends passed away in a car accident, and everyone in our community was rightly emotional at the loss of such a good person. But in the back of our minds, we couldn’t help but proclaim that his death, as evil and tragic as it was, was the next step in his journey of life. He loved rock climbing, and as our priest so eloquently put it in his homily, he has now reached the peak. The climb was treacherous at times, it was uncertain, it was scary, but death was not the end, the height of the climb was new life.

This week, I am reminded in quite a tangible way of the beauty of what Christ has done for us. God created us good, sin entered the world and brought death, God became man and took on death, and in rising conquered it once and for all. I can’t help but smile as I write this and think of 1st Corinthians where we hear, “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?”

As the Catechism puts it, “The flesh is the hinge of salvation. We believe in God who is the creator of the flesh; we believe in the Word made flesh in order to redeem the flesh; we believe in the resurrection of the flesh, the fulfillment of both the creation and the redemption of the flesh.”

So let us grieve when we are confronted with death, as is right to do, let us affirm that death is not a good, but let’s not believe the lie that death is the end. Thank you, God, for dying so that I may truly live. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Tell Your Story

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“Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD swept the sea with a strong east wind throughout the night and so turned it into dry land. When the water was thus divided, the children of Israel marched into the midst of the sea on dry land, with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.”

Such a nice story, so evident the power of God thousands of years ago, I wish his power didn’t fade over time. Ever felt this way? Well, God’s power was there way back with the Israelites, but today, he clearly isn’t as powerful or doesn’t care as much about us. Obviously this is not true, but I think we start to have these thoughts in our minds because we don’t often share how the Lord works in our lives.

We may be afraid that if we share how God has worked in our lives we will be made fun of, or we may have a sense of false humility where if we talk about what God has done through us that somehow we will take credit for it. I want to renounce these thoughts as the lies they are.

The reality is that God could have chosen any number of ways to free his people, he chose Moses. He could have chosen any number of ways to feed the poor in Calcutta, he chose a short and frail sister. He could have chosen any number of ways to free Russia from communism, he chose St. John Paul II. He could have chosen any number of ways to free us all from sin, he chose his son.

God works through human beings and though he doesn’t need us because he is all powerful, he has chosen to need us. He has chosen the human person as a tangible way to transmit his love to the world and that means that your life has prupose, has meaning, you are important. He chose you.

With that importance comes power. When we start to realize how God wants to work in our lives and how he wants to communicate his love through us we need to ask and believe that he will do what he says. Let’s not fall into the common trap of believeing that God wants to speak powerfully through others but not through ourselves.

We can all think of a time when God has worked in our lives and I invite you to share that story. When I was younger I fell asleep reading a prayer book and the lamp I was using fell into my bed and caught it on fire. Long story short, the whole mattress was burning but I didn’t wake up. Finally, my parents came running into the room screaming and I jumped up and ran away from the bed without a single mark or burn. The prayer I was reading was the St. Joseph prayer which promises that anyone who reads this prayer will not be burned in any fire. God works and has power. Your story may not be as intense or dangerous, but God works through us and in us. What is your story? I invite you to listen to this video by Jon Foreman. It is a phenomenal video about the importance of story. It is a little long but I promise it is worth it. Once you have watched it, share your story with someone else of how God has touched your heart. The world needs to see the power of the Lord, and they are shown that power through you.

From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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My Burden is Light

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The headphones go in, the music or Netflix goes on, and for just a while we can forget that we are human, that we have responsibility, so much so that we call it vegging. The height of the human experience after a long day of work is acting more like a vegetable than a human.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that people don’t work hard. My life is very busy between work, home life, and teaching classes at our local church. Lots of people have sports or study. Many people in our community are hard working farmers. Our burden is often heavy.

But what do we do to help us with that burden? In today’s Gospel Jesus is calling us to rely on him. He is calling us to trust. Something my wife and I have been working on lately is praying more instead of watching another episode on Netflix. Have you noticed how the shows that are being made up aren’t even that good anymore, but we watch them for hours and at the end we realize we didn’t even care for it.

Now I am not saying get rid of your Netflix or stop flipping through social media. What I am saying is that we need a better awareness as a society of what actually matters. Jesus is reaching out to give us his peace and love and often times we push him away with our headphones and tell him to take the back seat. Imagine if when we were stressed or worried or had the obstacles of life pile up on us leaving us exhausted, that instead of vegging out and forgetting our humanity, instead embracing the humanity of the ultimate human. Letting Jesus into our hearts and from there finding rest. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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The Sky is Falling

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Warm ash falls from the tops of buildings as the brightest light imaginable makes our pupils dilate to the size of a pen head. There is a heat that can only be described as that of a blazing furnace built for forging swords of old. This sounds like the opening paragraph of a book about the end of the world, but really it’s just me imagining what the end of the world might be like.

There is a lot of talk today about the end of the world. As our culture seems to deteriorate more and more we can’t help but wonder where all of this is going and how fast. The optimist in me immediately reminds myself that there have been many times that cultures have thought the world was ending, but it didn’t. Whether the end of the world is near or not, a question that we just don’t know the answer to, I think our response to the world today should be one of optimism.

It is easy to look around and feel like the sky is falling around us, but the Gospel today reminds us that, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.”

Today in the Church we could look at the situation and get depressed about the slew of people leaving the Church but what is that going to get us? Instead, the Gospel reminded me today that I am one of the disciples. I am called to go out during this time where the harvest can be so abundant, but I need to go and till the soil. I think that is a call for all of us.

I am reminded of that iconic scene from the Lord of the Rings:

“Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.

Sam: I know.
It’s all wrong
By rights, we shouldn’t even be here.
But we are.
It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo.
The ones that really mattered.
Full of darkness and danger they were,
and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end.
Because how could the end be happy.
How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened.
But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow.
Even darkness must pass.
A new day will come.
And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Those were the stories that stayed with you.
That meant something.
Even if you were too small to understand why.
But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand.
I know now.
Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t.
Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

I don’t know about you but that scene gets me amped up. I get excited that every person I meet is another chance to share the love of Christ. I get excited that there are people out there who really want to know the truth and I can present it to them. I get pumped about learning new things about my neighbors and entering into their experience.

The point is that we are all called to be disciples and to till the soil. When we think about the daunting task ahead of us do we fall into despair and immediately think about the end of the world or do you think more like Sam? I pray that I can be a Sam. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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The Wedding Feast

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I absolutely love when God’s love and our relationship with him are described in wedding terms. I especially love when those terms include food. Think back to the most delicious wedding reception you have ever attended. For me, it was my own. We found a place to cater our wedding that had the absolute best wedding food I have ever had. We had pulled pork sandwiches, chicken teriyaki skewers, and fancy mac and cheese. Instead of dry chicken and boiled vegetables, we had comfort food specifically because we wanted people to enjoy it and have a really good time.

The beauty of food is that it brings people together. We all have a favorite family recipe that we love to bring to events or family gatherings. We all have that Aunt or Uncle who is so good at cooking that they could start their own restaurant. We just celebrated the 4th of July. Have you ever noticed that every major holiday has a feast as the hallmark of the celebration? We come together around food.

It is no different with our communal relationship with Christ. The Mass is people from all different backgrounds coming together and sharing in a meal, but this meal does not leave us wanting more or hurting from overeating. This meal gives us eternal life. St. Francis de Sales once said, “When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth’s sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven, and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food.”

Jesus is our food and we can experience him here and now, but we also long for the fulfillment of the wedding feast of the lamb, we all long for heaven. Or at least we should. As Christians, we should groan in hunger for our future heavenly feast. If we don’t then perhaps we should fast more. This is something I want to do more in my life. Fasting allows us to feel hunger, and that hunger can remind us that we hunger to be perfectly united with God.

As we all rest from eating during the holiday, let’s try to make one tangible decision to fast in the hopes that we will be reminded of how much we hunger for God. This could be as simple as giving up salt on your meals for a week or something bigger like fasting every Wednesday and eating nothing but bread and water. You know where you are at in your relationship with God. What is going to help you take the next step towards God, the next step closer to the wedding feast where we will no longer hunger or thirst? From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Longing for Spiritual Food

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God communicates in different ways to different times, but the core message remains; a message of love. In the Old Testament God the Father spoke to the Prophets, in the New Testament the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and after the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles at Pentecost the Holy Spirit has been guiding us and the Church ever since.

Though we can see these real examples of each person of the Trinity working in specific times of history, every person of the trinity is present with us all throughout our lives. One of my favorite parts of the Catechism is where it says, “God is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.”

Our destiny is to share intimately in the relationship of God, but that destiny starts today. We can start to enter into that relationship here and now. The Father loves us and we can experience him through our prayer. The Son loves us through the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Spirit loves us through the Sacraments and our openness. We do not have to wait until the end of our lives for our destiny to start to become realized.

I like to think of this in relation to food. I love cooking and I love eating so most of my analogies are food based. Haha. Think of eating your favorite food. You have the taste and goodness of it instantly, but you don’t experience the fullness of it until it has been digested and used for energy. In the same way, we can taste the love of God in a very real way here on this earth, and we long for the fullness of that love to be realized at the end of time.

One time when I was on a work trip we stopped for dinner and I had these bacon wrapped dates that changed my life forever. Ever since tasting those delicious little pieces of perfection I have longed for the day when I can get back to that restaurant and try them again. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we treated our relationship with the Trinity in the same way? That we tasted God every week in the Mass and then longed for him until we could receive again. With this mindset, Mass stops being a chore and starts becoming something we look forward to every week, the same way I look forward to getting back to that restaurant. But the food God gives will give us eternal life. I know I can be more aware of this in every moment of my life.

One of the most helpful things I have heard about the spiritual life came from The Wild Goose Series. Fr. Dave Pivonka encourages us to simply say, “Come Holy Spirit,” throughout the day. This helps us not only to experience the love of God but also to help us be aware that we should long for the day when we are united perfectly with God in heaven. He longs to be united fully to us. Let us hunger for the same. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

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Love One Another

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Perhaps the most quoted Gospel of all time shot off the page to me with new meaning as I sat in Mass on Saturday evening. We have all heard, love one another; that’s like the basics. Have you ever let something so simple lose its weight because of its simplicity?

Our priest took this familiar passage in a bit of a different direction that made me think. He said if we all acted like we were supposed to, the whole world would be converted. After all, everyone will know we belong to Christ because of our love for one another. These are words directly from Christ himself.

It really made me think. Have I done this in my life? I know I’m supposed to love God and love my neighbor, but has my love for others been a beacon that lets people know who I belong to? I hope it has.

How about you? Has your love been infectious to the point that a total stranger knows who your savior is? Again, these are the basics. People sometimes complain that homilies are too often about loving others and not about morality. This may be true at times but look around you. The fact that the whole world isn’t converted means we still have not grasped the basics.

We can all love better. That’s just the simple reality. I love the teachings of Saint John Paul II because he really set up a major shift in thought from objective truths to personal experience. He did not get rid of the objective facts but brought us to them through our own personal experience. We know God is love because we have experienced it. This is a model of evangelization that I have found very effective. Until someone experiences love it is hard to talk to them about the objective truths of morality, but once love is experienced, morality starts to make sense, it wells up from within as opposed to being edicts forced from without.

Doctrine and dogma have their place, but we have not even begun to grasp the basics. We need both. This is my challenge this week and a good reminder as I sat there in front of the Eucharist. We should always be living in such a way that people know we are Christians by our love, and it shows through our moral actions. From all of us here at Diocesan, God Bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan. In that role, he is committed to coaching parishes and dioceses on authentic and effective Catholic communication. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.