On This Rock

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

A Beautiful Video on my Journey

Monday, March 16, 2026

G.K. Chesterton on What Protestants THINK are the central tenets of Catholicism

"So much of the Protestant tradition still remains that a great many people suppose that the chief marks of Catholicity are those which stood out as stains in the eyes of the last school of critics. Romanism is supposed to be made up of Popery and Purgatory and the confessional, with the queerest things thrown in, such as incense and rosaries and the images of saints.

But these were often the things most important to Protestants, not most important to Catholics"

G.K. Chesterton. "The Well and the Shallows".

Should you Fast on the Sundays of Lent?

No.

St. Thomas Auinas, in his commentary on Romans 14:5 notes: “There are some days on which it is unlawful to fast. For Augustine says in his “Letter to Casulanus”: “Whoever thinks that a fast should be decreed on the Lord’s day would not be a small scandal to the Church."

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

Smash Your Smartphone!

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Adolf Hitler was a baptized Catholic

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Fernando Mendoza brought the Heisman to my spiritual director Fr. Patrick Hyde!

POWERFUL: Indiana star quarterback Fernando Mendoza on Christmas Eve brought the Heisman Trophy to the local priests at the church in an Amazon box.

“We walked out and there, in an Amazon box, there was the Heisman Trophy”

This kid is truly special 👏🙏pic.twitter.com/2LqF5Thv9n
— MLFootball (@MLFootball) December 31, 2025

Active Catholic Fernando Mendoza on Going to Mass and Confession

POWERFUL: Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza on why he took the trophy to the priests & celebrated his accomplishment with them.

“I'm a Catholic, I'm a Catholic man”

“I really give a lot that I have accomplished this season in my life to the Lord”

🙏pic.twitter.com/HNk2q0ie2O https://t.co/byIUZbdpY4
— MLFootball (@MLFootball) January 19, 2026

Monday, December 22, 2025

Our Lady of Guadalupe 2025

On April 24, 2007 Mexico City legalized abortion for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. That same day, as Catholics Gathered in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, the Tilma of Juan Diego, started to glow with an image of a fetus in Mary’s womb.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patroness of the Pro-Life movement because in 1531, it was the first Church-approved Marian Apparition where our Blessed Mother appeared pregnant (the black band around her waist signified pregnancy in the culture at the time.

Approximately 70 MILLION children have been aborted in the United States. And relatedly, it is estimated that 100 MILLION more children have died through the use of the contraceptive pill, which has as one of its mechanisms reducing a child’s chance of implanting on the mother’s uteran lining.

Even the United States Supreme Court has recognized the link between abortion and contraception when, in 1992 in “Planned Parenthood v. Casey”: "in some critical respects abortion is of the same character as the decision to use contraception . . . . for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail."

So as Catholics we are leading the charge in a lot of ways against abortion and helping women choose life, but we are not doing nearly as well supporting families who are not using contraception, as no Catholic marriage should be. I was talking to one of my sisters at Thanksgiving and she said an elderly lady sat down next to her in her pew right before Mass started, and began grilling my sister about how her and her husband could possibly their 4^th child, my sister was grilled on their grocery bills, electricity bills, and lots of other total boundary violations, but the main point is that we, as Catholics, need to be SUPPORTING families who are having children, not doing the horribly sinful things of DISCOURAGING families from having more children.

So what are we doing, as a parish, to support families who are having children? Let’s build and even better and more flourishing culture of life at this parish, helping support families with children, and never discourage a family. I will end with this: St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said this: “Saying there are too many children is like saying there are too many flowers”. Amen!

Saturday, December 20, 2025

The Funeral Homily for Maia Amador

On November 2^nd this past Sunday, at my Masses I preached about this list of names right here on this worn piece of loose-leaf paper. This past Sunday, there were 146 names on this piece of paper, and I preached about how, every night, I pray for all of these 146 people who are deceased, but then I also ask all of them to pray for me. Now there are 147 people on this list as I have added Maia Amador to this list.

And that is a very beautiful teaching of our Catholic Faith…we can pray for those who have died, but we believe that they can also pray for us. In fact, on my drive up here this morning, I was praying and asking Maia to give me the words this morning to bring all who were going to be at this funeral a deep sense of peace and comfort.

Our first reading this morning was from the 2^nd Chapter of the Book of Wisdom. In the first chapter of Wisdom, it says “God did not make death, nor does He rejoice in the destruction of the living”. One of the reasons that God allows anything bad to happen is that He has plans to bring something even better out of that tragedy. I can only speak for myself, but I know that I have become a better Catholic in watching the Amador family, and all who are here this morning helping each other and Maia carry her cross. I know that I have grown even closer to Jesus in just watching this all play out from a distance.

In our 2^nd reading today from St. Paul’s 2^nd letter to Timothy we heard Saint Paul say “the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day.” This was written right before Paul’s death, early in on Paul’s career though, he wrote in his First Letter to the Corinthians, and I am paraphrasing here, “I am not aware of anything that would keep me out of Heaven, but I don’t presume to say that I am going to Heaven”. (1 Cor. 4:3-4)

So what changed? It is clear that as St. Paul approached his death, he was given a clear message from Jesus that he would in fact be entering Heaven. And to hear the stories of a lot of you all who are here this morning, it is pretty clear that Maia had some sort of similar message from Jesus near the end of her life.

So where does that leave all of us? In our Gospel this morning, Jesus says to each of us “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) At a previous assignment, I have the standard 3 foot tall sidewalk signs that you see out in front of most coffee shops with this quote from Jesus “come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” and then the sign invited everyone to come in. And over the years, I heard from a lot of non-Catholics that they appreciated the invitation because they didn’t think they were allowed in. They all also reported experiencing a great peace in our Church; we who are here this morning know why that is; we know that Jesus dwells in every Tabernacle in every Catholic Church in the world. So anytime we are particularly struck with sadness or grief at Maia’s death, let us come to the Catholic Church or an adoration Chapel and give our burdens over to the Lord, and we will experience a great sense of peace and rest because Christ is always faithful and keeps every one of His promises!

May Maia’s soul, and the souls of the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

December 23rd - O Emmanuel

About 20 years ago, I did a blog post for each of the “O Antiphons”. In going back through them, I realized I never did the last one, “O Emmanuel” so I decided to do it today.

First, here are all of the other “O Antiphon” posts from around 20 years ago:

December 17th: https://on-this-rock.blogspot.com/2013/12/december-17th-o-sapientia.html

December 18th: https://on-this-rock.blogspot.com/2013/12/december-18th-o-adonai.html

December 19th: https://on-this-rock.blogspot.com/2013/12/december-19th-o-radix-jesse.html

December 20th: https://on-this-rock.blogspot.com/2013/12/december-20th-o-clavis-david.html

December 21st: https://on-this-rock.blogspot.com/2013/12/december-21st-o-oriens.html

December 22nd: https://on-this-rock.blogspot.com/2013/12/december-22nd-o-rex-gentium.html

These "O Antiphons" are ancient pieces of chant sung on the days from December 17th through December 23rd. Each day a different Old Testament title for the messiah is beseeched to come. As the world cried out in longing for the Messiah before Christ, so we still cry out for his return.

Today's O Antiphon is sung to "Emmanuel"

The Latin is "O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster, exspectatio gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad salvandum nos Domine Deus noster."

The English "O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expected of the Nations and their Saviour, come to save us, O Lord our God."

"Emmanuel" is Hebrew for "God is with us"

The word shows up in Isaiah 7:14 "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; the young woman, pregnant and about to bear a son, shall name him Emmanuel."

In Isaiah, the larger context is that prophet Isaiah is commanded by God, "Go out to meet Ahaz...and say to him: "Take care you remain calm and do not fear" Ahaz is in fear because what appears to be 2 mighty nations are preparing to conquer Ahaz's kingdom.

The story then continues: "Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God...But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!” Then he said: "Listen, house of David! Is it not enough that you weary human beings? Must you also weary my God?

And then Isaiah says the part that makes up our O Antiphon for today: "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; the young woman, pregnant and about to bear a son, shall name him Emmanuel."

Ahaz, unfortunately, does not take Isaiah's counsel and is defeated.

But Isaiah's words also find its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

This "O Antiphon" is the most famous of all of them, as it has been turned into an english hymn "O Come O Come Emmanuel" sung in a lot of Catholic Churches throughout the entire season of Advent.