On Easter Sunday 2017 my family and I gathered at the family home to celebrate Easter by partaking in our regular Easter feast (our family does food well). My grandparents and many of my dad’s graduate students joined us for the feast. I enjoyed getting to know some of the graduate students better during dinner… [Read More]
About William Rooney
Providence’s Hidden Grace
God’s providence has granted me grace upon grace. And sometimes graces come in very small packages. Above you’ll see a picture of each of my two god-children Elle (top) and Benedict (bottom). I promised to help their parents raise them in the faith. I traced a cross on their foreheads marking them for Christ. I… [Read More]
A season of emptiness: Book Review: Houselander – The Reed of God
When I was in high school the administration used to play music during the passing periods between classes as a way of helping students measure the time they had left to get to class. The song choices were moderated by the administration but they accepted the suggestions of students, naturally, most of the songs were… [Read More]
The Song and the Priesthood
Recently, thanks to my Old Testament Writings class, I have spent a lot of time reading, meditating on, and writing about the Song of Songs. It is a marvelous book which I highly encourage you to read. In some ways, the Song is a remarkable book to find in the Bible. The Making very little… [Read More]
Freedom – Part 2 – Why is it so hard to be free
As discussed in the last article in this series, in order to know what we ought to do to be happy, we must understand who we are, which means understanding what we are. If we desire to be truly happy, we must learn the truth about ourselves. That deepest truth is found in our identity in… [Read More]
Friendship in the Fathers: Basil and Gregory
Sin and a lack of friendship Sin is nothing new to the world; since our first parents fell from the state of paradise sin and its effects have plagued us in our persons, our families, and nations. It is clear that we are mired in sin. It seems like each day we hear of another… [Read More]
Corpus Christi, Faith, and Culture
Here in Guatemala, the feast of Corpus Christi is awesome. The whole diocese celebrates it together on the appointed day but in the following weeks, each particular parish church has its own celebration of Corpus Christi. These celebrations are a big deal… A really big deal. In the larger churches, they are celebrated as an… [Read More]
Learning to Speak Spanish
As I write this blog, I am sitting in the beautiful city of Antigua, Guatemala. I’ve been here in Guatemala for a little over a week. The primary purpose of me coming to this ancient ciudad is to learn Spanish so that in the future I will be able to speak the language of many… [Read More]
Freedom – Part 1 – Of garden tillers
Freedom is the God-given state of man’s natural existence, which makes it possible for man to achieve his natural end of flourishing in relationships with other people and his supernatural end of a communion of love with the Blessed Trinity. To be loved by the Father and to love Him in return by receiving this great… [Read More]
El propósito de su vida
¿Cuál es el propósito de su vida? Esta es una pregunta que todos debemos hacernos si queremos ser felices. Como humanos buscamos una razón para nuestra vida, algo que dará significado a nuestros días aquí. No estamos satisfechos con la realidad que encontramos cada día, manchada con sufrimiento, violencia, dolor, y lágrimas. Sí, hay gozos… [Read More]
Weeping For Our Sins
An older friend, whom I consider a mentor, once told me, “there is no shame in weeping. Crying only means that we have loved and continue to love something or someone.” We weep on occasions when, from our human perspective, the beloved is irretrievably lost. We weep at evil; evil and it effects, committed by… [Read More]
Lent, Baptism, Gift and our Will
Today, Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning of Lent 2015. Lent is a time of liturgical preparation for the celebration of the Paschal Mystery during the days of the Holy Triduum. However, it’s purpose is not limited to actions to get us ready for yet another remembrance of these holy and saving truths of the faith…. [Read More]
Paul, Mercy, and Providence
Recently God has inspired me, through a variety of means to reflect on the action His merciful providence in my life. I have made many mistakes in my life. I have done and said things that have hurt my communion with others and with God. I have at times, with varying degrees of my will,… [Read More]
Silence and Communion
The Christmas break was a joyous time to be with family and friends back home. Extroverted as I am, I tend to gravitate towards filling my “break” times with many activities and reunions with friends, in addition to helping out back at my home parish of St. Thomas Aquinas. I do so because I wish… [Read More]
The Prayers – 4th Sunday of Advent
Since we can learn much from what we pray day in and day out in our Liturgy it would be profitable for us to reflect more profoundly upon the prayers of each day. We should especially do this over the season of Advent which marks the end of one liturgical year, and the beginning of… [Read More]
The Prayers – 3rd Sunday of Advent
Since we can learn much from what we pray day in and day out in our Liturgy it would be profitable for us to reflect more profoundly upon the prayers of each day. We should especially do this over the season of Advent which marks the end of one liturgical year, and the beginning of… [Read More]
The Prayers – 2nd Sunday of Advent
Since we can learn much from what we pray day in and day out in our Liturgy it would be profitable for us to reflect more profoundly upon the prayers of each day. We should especially do this over the season of Advent which marks the end of one liturgical year, and the beginning of… [Read More]
The Prayers – 1st Sunday of Advent
One of the guiding principles of the early church in formulating her doctrine was the phrase, lex orandi lex credenti, which translated means “the law of prayer [is] the law of believing.” In that time, the Church Fathers, plagued as they were with heresies no less than we are and faced with formidable intellectual rhetoricians… [Read More]
Liturgy and Culture: A Review of Ratzinger’s “Spirit of the Liturgy”
Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote a magnificent book called The Spirit of the Liturgy which I had the opportunity to read, think, and write about for one of my classes here at the seminary. He has a great insight into the Liturgy’s meaning and its centrality to the world in which we live…. [Read More]
A Fruit of Discipleship – Authentic Praise and Worship
This summer I had the amazing experience of visiting my friend, Katie Smith, who is a supervisor with the National Evangelization Team (NET) in St. Paul, MN. In case you have not heard of NET, here’s a quick background: NET is devoted to challenging “young Catholics to love Christ and embrace the life of the… [Read More]
I’m Restless and Learning to Rest in the Heart of Jesus
In the past few weeks of my seminary life, I have experienced again what has become a relatively common experience – I’ve moved 5 times in the past 2 years – of packing all my stuff into a car and driving to a new place and moving into a new domicile. The process of relocating… [Read More]
Agnostic Modernists vs The Church
Modernists and modernism have left a significant impact upon our post-modern world. One major impact has been the increasing prevalence of agnosticism or practical atheism within the world’s population. Agnosticism is the belief that man is unable to know whether God exists. Practical atheism is the resulting ethic or morality which is derived from such… [Read More]
