Fr. Brendan McGuire - Podcasts that Break open the Word of God

A few weeks ago, I led a pilgrimage to Spain with about 40 of our parishioners. We had a wonderful opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Spanish mystics.  We had the chance to visit Loyola, where Saint Ignatius was born and lived. But one of the most important parts of that was it is where he also returned  to convalesce after being wounded in a war. It was there that he had his conversion.
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I recently reread some statistics  that I found rather shocking,  but probably not terribly surprising.  They were from the Pew Research and CARA studies  on church attendance and church affiliation. They said that 25% of people who claim to be Catholic,  come to church.  That means that 75% do not come to church. Now, they are the ones who claim to be Catholic.
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As many of you know, I just returned last weekend from a two week pilgrimage to Spain with parishioners. We walked in the footsteps of St. Ignatius, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. John of the Cross. We started out following St. John of the Cross in Segovia and Sevilla, beautiful cities, stunning, where John was buried, Segovia.
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My mother used to have problems with some of my homilies, and she used to say so, "You are a bit light on judgment and a bit heavy on love." I would say, "God has more love than judgment." She would go, "Yeah." Then she would always end the argument, "Yeah, but that one who gets in at the end of time, who kind of just shows up with a conversion at the last moment, I think that is just a bit unfair!"
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I remember 9-11, twenty-five years ago. I was in the rectory at St. Lawrence Parish, as that second plane crashed into the tower, and then watching the two towers burning. It is seared into my memory. Then the following hours of confusion and anger, and then eventually watching both buildings collapse. I remember every moment of it. It is as if it happened yesterday. I remember in particular the next day, those hours after, the sky was silent. It was eerie. There were no commercial airplanes flying anywhere for days. There was a deep sense of eeriness, and of shock and anger. In the days that followed, I remember how the anger rose up in the nation and demanded revenge.
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