For a plethora of reasons, I have been doing a lot of looking back over my life the last few months. As one person pointed out, I have been focused on issues of mortality lately. One question always seems to pop up in human existence and that is the question of our legacy. What kind…
“Beer is made by men, wine by God!” -Martin Luther “I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food.” -W. C. Fields When I began my journey into the Old Catholic church and eventually the path toward priesthood in the Independent Sacramental Movement, my first mentor offered an observation about the clergy…
I never thought when I entered college as a Religion major in 1979, that 30 some years later I would be an Old Catholic priest. I did not grow up Catholic. I was a member of the United Church of Christ. My plan was to finish college, go on to seminary and become a UCC…
Since the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, called the Church to a new “horizon of evangelization,” there has been increased interest in the mission of evangelization. Parishes and dioceses throughout the United States have active evangelization teams and offices of evangelization. Yet, as central as evangelization is to the mission and life of the…
One day, while waiting in the front office for a client to come in, I was outed as being a pastor. She said there was something in my voice that affirmed for her that I either was in the past or am in the present someone who preaches. I smiled back and made a statement…
Lenten disciplines, like New Year’s resolutions, often start out with a great bang only to fizzle out after a couple of weeks. But don’t despair, that’s not a reason to lose hope or beat yourself up. It is a reminder, however, of our human frailty and need for Christ. After all, this is what Lent…
La persona de Jesús ha creado en la humanidad un sinnúmero de ideas y de apreciaciones hasta inclusive interpretaciones de lo que realmente Jesús quería con su movimiento espiritual, a lo que hoy llamamos institución eclesiástica. Aunque realmente poco o nada nos ha importado la antropología de este hombre que después de 20 siglos su…
Over a year ago I wrote about community chaplaincy in an article entitled “….Go and Do Likewise.” (Luke 10:37 NVI) Some may disagree with me, but I think that since the November 2016 election, our country has been experiencing an identity crisis on multiple levels in our collective socio-political consciousness. The ‘browning of America’ is…
An individual’s event horizon is one’s ability to set future goals. The further one’s event horizon extends, the more likely that person will experience success. Conversely, those whose event horizons are short sighted tend to live day to day, with no real tangible goals for the future. Monarchs such as Queen Elizabeth II of Great…
Editors Note: Father Castro asked that we include an English translation of his messages as well. In an effort to reach out to more people, we have included his original Spanish version in the pages before this. Ever effort was made to translate this message as faithful to the original as possible. Any error is…
