Brad Bursa

A Brief Catechesis on CCC, §31-43; §51-53 Note: This is a slightly modified catechesis I wrote for the Stella Maris Become Catholic program. Picture this. You’re viewing a painting in an art gallery and you notice all sorts of things about the painting. Color. Form. Lines. Curves. You see brush strokes. You see the whole…

A lesson from lectio on the importance of silencing the tongue. She crinkled her brow. Disapproval. We were sharing reflections while praying lectio divina as a small group of adults at the parish. We were praying with Matthew 11:28–30. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.…

Practical Wisdom (Part III) Fr. Clement listened to me complain about all the families currently registered at the parish who were neither enrolled in the school, nor in any of our formation programs. I wasn’t done. I went on to express my concern about all the other families within the parish boundaries for which we…

A Meditation on the Mission of Stella Maris Family of Parishes I am director of evangelization for Stella Maris Family of Parishes in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. At present, the Archdiocese is in the middle of what is called the Beacons of Light pastoral planning process. Beacons is a response to the declining number of…

Insights from the Rule of St. Benedict In The Wisdom of the Desert, Thomas Merton points out that the early monks who sought solitude in the wilderness “insisted on remaining human and ‘ordinary.’ This may seem to be a paradox, but it is very important. If we reflect a moment, we will see that to…

Practical Wisdom (Part II) My first year of teaching was a blur. This is is the case for most first year teachers. It’s just overwhelming, like trying to drink from a firehose. I don’t remember many of the details from that year, but I do know, taken as a whole, it was an intensely formative…

Practical Wisdom (Part I) Prefatory Note: The Desert Fathers, the hermits who stand at the origins of monasticism, are known for their sayings. These pieces of wisdom were practical bits of common sense and they’ve been handed on from generation to generation. As Thomas Merton puts it, “The Fathers were humble and silent men, and…

Joseph Ratzinger on the meaning of the word. Prefatory Note: In a previous post, I announced that I was beginning a year-long effort to articulate the gospel according to Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. This is the second installment in that series. Growing up, my religious education refrained from talking about sin. Mine was a kind of…

A Christmas Reflection I was ready to deliver the line in my talk when he walked in. Just as I was talking about how God has taken flesh and how God has a face, the door that always gets stuck got stuck and started rattling. Someone was there. Someone wanted in. And, as I delivered…

A primer on the method of divine reading. Those who know me well know that Lectio Divina is part of my time of daily personal prayer and also part of the way I do ministry. Lectio Divina is a way to read and pray with the Bible. These two Latin words mean “Divine Reading.” The…