img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-970" title="summer" src="http://makingallthingsnew.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/summer.jpg" alt="" time.A little advice. If you're thinking about starting a blog, I'd say that they're a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. But it's worth doing if you have some idea that can help people. We all know there are lots of people who need some help right now,...

Last week was a really busy week, and I still haven't recovered. So much for the weekend :(When I got home from work last night, I had the chance to watch a Dateline episode on NBC. The story was entitled America Now: Friends and Neighbors, and focused on the toll our continuing recession is taking on poor, rural America. The show spotlighted Southeast Ohio, where visits to the local food...

A young friend of mine called me late last night. He grew up here in Westminster, but moved out-of-state a few years ago. We keep in touch and talk about once a month.He wanted to talk because he had gotten himself into a very tough situation due to some poor choices he'd made.Mainly, he was mad at himself. Not even twenty-one yet, he'll be affected by the decision he made for the rest of his...

For most of us, we're used to finding God in our church buildings. We can also find Him when we look into the eyes of a loved one, or when we have a great day and everything seems to be just right.

For some of us, it's a bit harder to find God when we're confronted with some major issue, like the death of a child, the loss of a job, or it could be a terrible and unjust war, or maybe a...

Grace Before Meals and Making All Things New are. In some sense, I guess I shouldn't be surprised at that. We have been friends for many years now, and we both are striving to help people integrate faith into their daily lives. Plus, we love to cook.Fr. Leo is a great cook. We've prepared meals together in the past, and I'm always amazed at his culinary talents. His idea of bringing families...

Change is never easy. Today, our parish began the process of giving our input as to who our new pastor should be. What are the qualities we're looking for in our leader? Who do we want that person to be?For many of us, we struggle with the idea that the man who led us over the last 17 years is leaving. More than a few feel that, if he has to go, we want them to send someone exactly like him....

I've got a challenge for you. I want you to think about some important issue you need to work on but have been avoiding or not really trying hard enough on it. I'm guessing something has already come to mind. It's possible that you could create a whole list of issues, or maybe it's just one or two.Now I want you to ask yourself, "what's holding me back from dealing with it/them?" Most of the...

Assisi for the 4th of July. I had a bunch of teenagers with me, and they reminded me that they had never been away from the US on our Independence Day. I knew I wasn't going to find any fireworks, and I also realized that it wasn't necessarily the place to whip out our American flags.So, we did the next best thing. We sat around in the piazza outside the doors of theBasilica of St. Francis, and...

About three weeks ago, my first bulb catalogue came in. For a gardener, it's like seeing the first Christmas merchandise roll into the stores after Labor Day. I'm not quite ready to think about it yet. I took this photo of these single late tulips this past spring. Unfortunately, I've forgotten the name, and wouldn't you know it, they're not included in this year's catalogue. I know I'm not...

"For this is our God,

whose people we are,

God's well-tended flock." Psalm 95:7

I know they might be a bit hard to make out, but there eight little ducklings in the photo above. They were really small, about half the size of my fist. I want to share with you the story behind the photo. I think it's a good one.

On the last day of my retreat last week, I drove over to Patapsco State Park, about a ten...