Father Ray Dobson’s Blog

Known, yet loved There is a line I use to welcome visitors at Holy Trinity Clearview: “Around here, we will love you even though we know you, and we hope you will do the same for us.”People usually do a double-take when they hear it. Some laugh nervously. Others look genuinely confounded.Why? Because this exposes […]

The Shape of True Courage In a culture obsessed with noise, we often mistake bravado for courage.We imagine that the most courageous person in the room is the one shouting the loudest, winning the debate, or leading the charge into battle.But true pastoral courage looks radically different: rarely loud, and it is never self-serving.True courage

Drawn, not dragged Society increasingly looks to politics, welfare systems, and secular psychology to solve the deep ache of the human condition. We want a system to manage our behavior.The Church as the true hospital, and Christ as the Physician.Look at why fixing the exterior world (laws, handouts, signage) never satisfies the human heart. Contrast

Drawn, not dragged We have never been more connected.We can speak to people on the other side of the world in seconds. We can see photographs of cousins, classmates, parishioners, and strangers throughout the day. We can follow hundreds or even thousands of people online.And yet many people are deeply lonely. We are surrounded by

Part II: The Feed and the Heart — Making Room for Holy Silence We live in a world that seems afraid of silence.At almost any moment, we can reach into a pocket and enter an endless stream of headlines, opinions, arguments, advertisements, outrage, amusement, and distraction. The modern “feed” is never finished. There is always

Part I: The Frictionless Life — When Convenience Becomes a Master We live in an age that treats convenience almost as a holy virtue.With a few taps on a screen, we can order a meal, purchase almost anything, speak with someone across the world,watch a film, pay a bill, or avoid standing in a line.