Brad Bursa

No space between load and limit = no time for divine appointments. “I have no margin.” The thought flickered through my mind. Ironically, I was rushing through John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry when I came across this passage: It’s been said that margin is “the space between our load and our limits.”…

Considerations on the Topic by Ratzinger, Pieper, Baars, and Schmemann 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 third installment in that series. The Gospel supposedly brings joy, but what is joy, anyway? What does this…

A Brief Catechesis on CCC, §§232-237, 268-274 Note: This is a slightly modified catechesis I wrote for the Stella Maris Become Catholic program. “Daddy, throw this ball up to the moon.” My three-year-old daughter didn’t ask me to do this. She told me to do it. For her, at least at a certain point in…

Some Principles from Luigi Giussani on Authentic Education In his 1973 TV short “There’s No Time for Love, Charlie Brown,” Charles Schultz issued one of my favorite critiques of contemporary, utilitarian education: Linus: What’s wrong, Charlie Brown? Charlie Brown: I just got terrible news. The teacher says we’re going on a field trip to an…

Apparently, there’s no such thing as sin anymore. I needed to fact-check a couple of points in my Ignatian Examen handout. Rather than head down to my office to get my tattered and taped Louis J. Puhl, S.J. 1951 edition of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, I thought I could do a quick Google…

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…