I was windy today -- this is over 14 minutes, at the early Mass at St. Benedict. I am covering various aspects of participation in liturgy. I would love to go deeper into the social situation of "convenient sacrifice" at the time of Jesus. My personal spirituality is founded upon the notions of sacrifice as discussed in Hebrews 9 and 10.

Is anxiety necessary? Was Abraham's imperative to kill his son all in his mind? We will try to answer these questions today. Recorded at the 8 am Mass in Auburn.

I supposed I would simplify things a bit for myself if I discontinued the blog at AOL and started blogging here. Anyone who has tried to follow my blog knows that I have not been very active with it, and with good reason. I am the pastor of a newly created parish -- a merger of three parishes. I have been serving since July as judicial vicar (head of our diocesan tribunal). I am ecumenical officer of our diocese. Bishop Lucas told me that if I have to cut back, I am to cut back on the ecumenical and interreligious activity. I have resigned from the board of the Greater Springfield Interfaith Association, and I am finding other ways to respect my limits. Being at a computer feels, to me, essentially like work. That is unfortunate, because I have some hobbies that involve the computer. Maybe I am reaching the point where I need two separate computers so I can better separate work from play. Anyway, I seem to be taking some advice I gave a week ago. I told my parishioners that there is a lot of chaos in our lives right now, and one helpful thing we can do is to "enjoy the chaos." I seem to be doing this. It's not too bad!

Once I finished this homily, I realized that I had not mentioned the date of Easter; it's April 16. Lent does not exist for its own sake; rather, it is our preparation for Easter.