Fr. John Burns invites you on a pilgrimage this Lent using Return: A Guided Lent Journal for Prayer and Meditation. Fr. John will be your guide through what is the most difficult season of the Church, yet also the most transformative. Are you ready to enter the desert and experience the richness ...

Fr. John Burns introduces you to the pillars of Lent—prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  Fr. John encourages you to reflect on what practices you will commit to this Lent and how they will help you to journey through the events of the paschal mystery to the glory of the resurrection. Although not a...

Fr. John Burns explains how the season of Lent calls us to return to the Lord, and renounce all those things of the world that separate us from God. Lent begins with the practice of wearing ashes on our foreheads to remind us and the world that there is grave sin, disorder, and division that is a...

Fr. John Burns explains the significance of the temptation of Jesus in the desert and how we can learn from Jesus’s example of confronting the devil. In each of the three temptations of Christ, we see the confidence Jesus has in his father—a confidence that we can tap into to overcome temptation ...

Fr. John Burns focuses on the passage from the prophet Joel in which the Lord calls his people to return to him with their whole heart. We are reminded in this passage that God is inviting us into a relationship with him, a relationship of love and faithfulness. Like the people of the Old Testame...

Fr. John Burns reflects on the practice of fasting to return to the Lord. Fr. John affirms for us that it is in our suffering—our experiences of betrayal and rejection—that we are united with Christ and experience the victory of Christ on the cross as we carry our own crosses in life. In Lent, we...

Fr. John Burns reflects on weeping and lamentation as a remedy for coming to terms with the reality that things in life do not always go as we want. In the Bible, the Israelites cried out to the Lord when things went wrong—not as an accusation against God—but as a display of their continued faith...

Fr. John Burns focuses on the quote from the prophet Joel to “rend your hearts, not your garments”. The prophet Joel is calling us to amend our lives, return to the Lord, and practice good works. In preparation for Holy Saturday, Fr. John reflects on the meaning of this day and most especially t...

Fr. John Burns reflects on the meaning of this holiest of weeks. It is during Holy Week that we see the completion of God’s plan, a divine rescue mission, to take on the burden of sin and free us from it. Christ the Divine Bridegroom, hears the cries of his bride, and sacrifices himself to save h...

Alleluia! He is risen! In this video, Fr. John Burns ponders the magnitude of the resurrection—how it changed the created world, permanently and forever. He is risen as he said he would! Alleluia! Happy Easter.

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