Archive of Fr. Paul's Blogs

It has been almost a year since I was inspired to start the Bottom Line Meditations series for your study. In this series, my desire has been to lead you to the “how” to unlock the Gospel secrets of spirituality. Recently, I received inspiration that it is time to “upgrade” the focus of the Bottom Line Meditation series from discovering spirituality to understanding the grace language of Jesus. Perhaps I could call this spirituality 2.0! Or, probably more appropriately, you have graduated from undergraduate spirituality school and are now beginning your graduate studies on spirituality.   Read more

Pentecost. The need to witness today is the same as it was in the time of the first disciples. How we witness must be updated. We have computers, cell phones, Facebook, Twitter. How do we utilize them to witness? We need to make a paradigm shift. It is called DISCIPLE‑SHIFT. The DISCIPLE‑SHIFT offers an inventive way to grow spiritually and to witness to others about the grace of God within us all.  Read more

Pentecost: What we value determines who we are. Rationally we first value the external physical things we see around us. Jesus teaches us to first value the spiritual things we sense within us. (Luke 12:31)   Read more

Seventh Sunday of Easter. Rationally, this prayer is the Mother Lode. It is filled with golden nuggets. It would take a theologian a life time to mine the nuggets and still they would not have come near the finish. It is really loaded. Spiritually it raises some real questions. Who wrote it? Jesus never wrote anything.  Read more

Seventh Sunday of Easter: Worldly believes rationally to be saved. Godly experiences belief spiritually to be saved. Worldly believes righteousness is doing the right thing. Godly believes being in a right relationship with Jesus, you will do the right thing.   Read more

Sixth Sunday of Easter. When you read the commentaries they center on “keeping the word if we love Jesus”. Their definitions of the word can be all over the place. If we want to know what is John’s definition of the “word” all we need to do is go back to the first Chapter. “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God.” John’s definition of the Word is the “One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  Read more

Sixth Sunday of Easter: Worldly listens with the head. Godly wonders in the heart. Worldly looks to what is done to see the face of God. Godly senses the face of God to see what He does.   Read more

Fifth Sunday of Easter. We try to understand the meaning of the words of Jesus to feel His Presence. In feeling the Presence of the Wisdom Jesus has in us, we understand the meaning of the words. The word “Glory” is an example of this. There is a common meaning of “we beheld His glory”. John 1:14 His glory rationally might be how magnificent God in Christ is. The spiritual meaning is to experience the Presence of God in Christ.   Read more

Fifth Sunday of Easter: Worldly sees actions as positional (with respect to physical locations). Godly understand actions as conditional (with respect to the condition of the heart spiritually). Worldly sees Heaven as a place for God. Godly see Heaven as the reign of the Presence of God.   Read more

Fourth Sunday of Easter. I have told you, and you do not believe. Belief is not a matter of facts. Belief is a reality that we create when we see the facts. The religious leaders did not believe who Jesus was, not because of the evidence but because of what they thought about the evidence. They were both on different pages.  Read more