COME REST AWHILE In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus said to His disciples, “Come away by yourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.”  This scene occurs in a very busy chapter of miraculously feeding thousands of people, healing others, battling storms, enduring the death of...

Old Ghosts Father Don Farnan Apr 5 Each spring as we recall the passion of Christ, we recollect His walk to Calvary and our own walk of destiny.  As He encountered good and bad people, from soldiers carrying out His execution and religious leaders demanding His death...

FSC Website Father Don Farnan Apr 1 Though it has taken me a while, this week I am able to introduce a website for the Farnan Spirituality Center (FSC).  You can visit it by clicking here, thanks to Lane Lucas, webmaster for Saint Charles Church and Borromeo Academy....

ather Don Farnan Mar 30 I have had a few recent encounters with students, alumni, and friends of Rockhurst University that, I believe, will help shape my role there in upcoming years.  They all pointed to the value of friendships.  Perhaps, most explicit was the...

Carry On Wayward Son Father Don Farnan Mar 20 In Robert Services’ famous poem, “Carry On,” he encourages human engagement in every aspect of life, from the youthful energy of overzealous adolescents to the struggled breathing of those in their final days on earth.  He...

DAVID BROOKS Author David Brooks will be the guest of Rockhurst University later this month, speaking about the road to character in today’s world.  Among his many best-selling books are The Social Animal, The Second Mountain, and The Road to Character.  He is a...

UPON THIS ROCK Time For Forgiveness In addition to being a time for prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, Lent is a season of reconciliation and healing, a time for forgiveness: to both give it and receive it.  Each of us has been hurt relationally or damaged emotionally...

UPON THIS ROCK Desert to Mountaintop Father Don Farnan Mar 2 Each ecclesial year, early days of the Lenten season take us into the desert with Jesus to encounter the darkness of demons that haunt us, and then to the mountaintop to catch a glimpse of a higher, brighter...

TO DUST YOU SHALL RETURN There are several formulas used for receiving ashes to begin the Lenten season.  The most common ritual is to be smeared on the forehead with soot while a ministering agent proclaims: “Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” ...

UPON THIS ROCK Love Is In The Air Love is in the air on Valentine’s Day.  According to legends surrounding the saint for whom this day is named, he encouraged courtship and marriage among young couples of his time while the local emperor discouraged soldiers from...

Father Don Farnan Feb 9 Strengthened by recent gridiron mettle and fortified by local beliefs, we’re incentivized by the determination of the Kansas City Chiefs. The injury list was extensive: many side-lined, while others play in pain, amidst fractures, dislocations,...

PHILLY In my senior year of college, the Kansas City Royals went to the World Series for the first time but lost the fall classic to the team from Philadelphia, four games to two.  That was forty-two years ago—a long time to hold on to something.  But that’s what...

Father Don Farnan Jan 26 I am no expert on yoga.  But I know that some people think it’s focus is Hindu spirituality that promotes pantheism, the belief that everything is God and God is everything (“pan” means all and “theos” means God).  For them, physical poses...

THE POOR WILL BE WITH US ALWAYS Earlier this week, urban parishes in Kansas City came together to commemorate and celebrate the birth and life of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his mission, ministry, and message.  King knew that injustice will be with us...

ENGAGEMENT Increasing numbers of engaged couples do not have a parish in which to host their wedding or they get told by a church official that they don’t qualify for the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony for various reasons, e.g., they’re not registered members, they’re...

Father Don Farnan Jan 8 As the NFL’s regular season is completed, our attention, perhaps even obsession, for the next month will be dedicated to the play-offs and championship games.  Looking back on this and recent years, the National Football League has been a...

TO DAYS GONE BY At the end 1877, the young Scottish poet, Rabbie Burns, found himself with mates and muckers at a pub where he embellished ancestral ballads passed down by older muckers who recalled times that evaporated into history.  Whether sober recollections of...

ather Don Farnan Dec 28 Returning to racially integrated communities in Kansas City’s urban core this year, I also attempt to return to cultural rituals and inspiring traditions different from those around which I grew up.  One that gets hidden amidst Christmas,...

BE NOT AFRAID In late September of 1978 when the Archbishop of Krakow was chosen as the first non-Italian pope in nearly 500 years, the future Saint John Paul II stepped onto the world stage with the words: “Be not afraid.”  His prophetic message echoed that of sacred...

Father Don Farnan Dec 16 In Bethlehem, pilgrims enter the Church of the Nativity through the Door of Humility.  It is structured so that only children and short people can enter standing up.  Adults must become diminutive by crouching down or bowing so they can pass...

Conversion Conversation Father Don Farnan Dec 12 The etymology of “conversion” and “conversation” are similar.  From Latin roots, “con” means with or together; “ver” or “vertere” is a reference to turning or changing; “sion” or “sation” implies an action.  Converting...

UPON THIS ROCK One Foot There Father Don Farnan Dec 7 Father Tom Curran, SJ, former president of Rockhurst University, often spoke to students about having one foot on campus and one foot out in the community.  He wanted them to realize that the main purpose of their...

Advent Father Don Farnan Nov 30 “Advent” comes from the Latin word adventus which means The Coming.  Liturgical, societal, and religious themes of the Advent season warn us to stay awake, be alert, get ready, and prepare a way.  The societal impact is probably most...

WRITTEN BY FATHER DON FARNANNOVEMBER 12, 2022 NATIVE PILGRIMS As little school children put on the silver belt buckled black hats of Pilgrims or colorful feathered head gear of Native Americans to sit in circles with paper turkeys traced from their handprint and to...

WRITTEN BY FATHER DON FARNANNOVEMBER 8, 2022 REBUILD MY CHURCH When Giovanni Bernadone (who we know as Francis of Assisi) rejected his father’s business to live among the poor in the thirteenth century, he walked the hills of his homeland, wandering into the little...

h UPON THIS ROCK BY FATHER DON FARNAN   WRITTEN BY FATHER DON FARNANOCTOBER 3, 2022 SACRAMENTAL MARRIAGE A parent recently approached me about a daughter who was engaged to a guy who had been married before and is intimidated by the church’s annulment process. ...

UPON THIS ROCK BY FATHER DON FARNAN   WRITTEN BY FATHER DON FARNANAUGUST 29, 2022 SYNODALITY NOW! When I drive by Serenity Funeral Home on Bannister Road at Troost Avenue on my daily commute, I think of Frank Costanza from Seinfeld fame.  In one episode, Frank...

  UPON THIS ROCK BY FATHER DON FARNAN   WRITTEN BY FATHER DON FARNANAUGUST 13, 2022 BROKEN HEARTS I think it was G. K. Chesterton who once quipped that there should be a ninth Beatitude and it should read: “Blessed are the broken-hearted, for they provide a...

  UPON THIS ROCK BY FATHER DON FARNAN   WRITTEN BY FATHER DON FARNANAUGUST 1, 2022 HOUSING WISDOM Rockhurst University’s motto, Sapientia Aedificavit Sibi Donum, translates as “Wisdom has built herself a home.”  The plot of land between Troost Avenue and The...