Brian Mullins is a permanent deacon in the Rockford Diocese who has been assigned by his Bishop to Saint Catherine of Genoa Parish in Genoa, Illinois.
I’ve been watching an online discussion about the hour-long fast before Mass. That conversation began with a seemingly innocuous question: can I have my coffee in that hour? It seems kind of logical in a way to wonder, as coffee is technically just bean water. That doesn’t deter meContinue Reading
As many of you know, it took 10 years for me to get back to Virginia. I’ve written about that before. That’s ten years of planning to go into a short three-day trip. On the drive down we had opted to stay at a hotel about halfway there. We lookedContinue Reading
My wife and I struggle to find time to actually get out and have a date. My spiritual director constantly reminds me of the need for a husband and wife to put their vocation first, to make time for a date. For a while, that meant Friday nights were ourContinue Reading
“It’s rose, not pink. Jesus rose from the grave, he didn’t pink from it.” I once heard a Priest say that in an exasperated tone to someone teasing him yet again about his “pink robes.” Rose. Why rose? Why in the middle of the Advent season with its purple bannersContinue Reading
December 12th is a hard day for me. In 2007 I had my back surgery, placing in 6 feet of titanium rods with 26 screws drilled into my vertebrae. It is also the day we lost one of our children to a miscarriage. + Another time we had anContinue Reading
Just looking at the news today will show you a simple truth: we are broken. As a people, as a nation, as a political entity, as a community, and most definitely on an individual and personal level. The wounds are real even if not on a physical level. Hearts ache,Continue Reading
It had been ten years since I had been back to my roots, to the mountains of Virginia. We had planned it many times. Each time something happened. Two times I ended up in the hospital. Another time we had some unfortunate bills come up we didn’t expect. The basementContinue Reading