Father Richard Speaks

A Franciscan Path Through Modern Confusion Reality is neither fully grasped nor endlessly invented. It is encountered. That sentence may be one of the most needed spiritual corrections in our age of confusion. Modernity often claimed too much certainty. It wanted reality measurable, manageable, systematized, categorized, explained, and controlled. It gave us extraordinary gifts: science,…

Most of us spend our lives trying to prove we exist. We fill calendars.Build identities.Accumulate accomplishments.Curate images.Defend opinions.Chase recognition. And beneath all of it lives a quieter ache: Do I matter?Am I real?Am I loved? The mystics answer these questions differently than the modern world. They begin not with the self, but with God. God…

Hope is not optimism, denial, or religious mood management. Hope is the Spirit’s yes alive in us — a positive vision rooted in love, mercy, community, creation, and the reign of God. In an age of artificial intelligence, polarization, loneliness, outrage, and simulated connection, hope must become embodied. AI can generate words about love, but…