Father John Kartje

August 05, 2026

August 16: 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Of all the characters in the Bible, a few stand out as extraordinary spiritual masters who have the unique gift of accompanying us along the journey toward the heart of God. Among these I would include the Canaanite woman who appears in today’s Gospel.

August 05, 2026

August 9: 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time

If you’ve ever accompanied a loved one through a terminal illness, you know the wild roller coaster of emotions and feelings such a journey engenders. I once had a friend whose life was suddenly upended by a diagnosis of Stage 4 cancer. This was compounded by her longtime struggle with clinical depression.

July 22, 2026

August 2: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

When I was a kid, one of my favorite stories in my children’s Bible was this Sunday’s Gospel, the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. What drew me then was not its spiritual profundity, but rather the vivid drawing of Jesus and his disciples sitting in a field, surrounded by what looked like a 20-foot-high pile of loaves of Wonder Bread, accompanied by thousands of fish flopping on the grass.

July 22, 2026

July 26: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Mundelein Seminary community recently lost one of its most beloved members, Father Gus Belauskas. For more than 50 years, Father Gus was directly involved with the formation of future priests as a professor, spiritual director, formation mentor and spiritual father.

July 08, 2026

July 19: 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

At the end of the 18th century, the Spanish artist Francisco Goya produced the etching “El sueño de la razón produce monstruos” (“The sleep of reason produces monsters”). If you have never seen it, I encourage you to look it up online.

July 08, 2026

July 12: 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

If you followed the World Cup, then you know that the U.S. team’s path to the knockout stage entailed wins against Paraguay and Australia, followed by a loss to Turkey. That loss didn’t much concern seasoned fans because they knew that the U.S. team — already guaranteed a place in the next round — rested its starters and gave its backups playing experience to better prepare the team for the single-elimination games ahead.

June 17, 2026

July 5: 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This weekend we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of our republic and we are invited to reflect upon the ongoing political experiment that is the United States of America. In spite of its overall remarkable success, we would be naive to deny that at many moments during the past two and a half centuries, the freedom of the people of our republic has been threatened, or outright denied existence, by myriad forces and in countless circumstances.

June 17, 2026

June 28: 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

A few years after my ordination, I was sent to the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., to pursue further studies in Scripture. I had the privilege of serving at St. Anthony Parish in the Brookland neighborhood, near CUA.

June 17, 2026

June 21: 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time

You’ve probably heard the line: “Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping that your enemy will die.” While this sentiment might carry the sting of truth for many of us, I am particularly impressed when its lesson is actually embraced and lived by someone who seemingly has the “right” to feel vengeful or to hold a grudge, such as Nelson Mandela, who quoted the line to great effect.

June 03, 2026

June 14: 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time

The reviews of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” have focused almost exclusively on his reflections concerning artificial intelligence. But we should note that the encyclical’s title isn’t “Magnifica Intelligentia Artificialis.”
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