Fr. Tom Bartolomeo column

I am the founder and director of the Families For Families Retreat House, a refuge for anyone who wants to rethink his or her life in a quiet non-demanding environment in an historic house c.1709 when life was less complicated. I am also and primarily a Catholic priest having been a college and university teacher, business-owner and executive among other things. I received my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in English literature from Saint John's University, Jamaica, New York and completed post-graduate studies at Kansas State University. Contact me at FatherTomSays@gmail.com. (Fr. Bartolomeo passed away on September 18, 2018. His obituary can be found here.)

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

July 26, 2018

David Thoreau, author of the most published book in America, Walden or Life in the Woods, also wrote, Faith in a Seed. How well he described the myriad ways . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 22, 2018

This, the holiest week of the year, commemorates Christ's sacrifices for our salvation on Holy Thursday, the Lord's Supper; on Good Friday, the Passion of the . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 1, 2018

The gods neither know nor understand, wandering about in darkness, and all the world's foundations shake. There is much to consider for the 3rd Sunday . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 16, 2018

– a light that moves over the waters of baptism. The light, although at first a glimmer, must grow in faith, hope and charity to be the Sun of God in our . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 8, 2018

– a light that moves over the waters of baptism. The light, although at first a glimmer, must grow in faith, hope and charity to be the Sun of God in our . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 4, 2018

Ad Dominum "To the Lord" in the future and BC "Before Christ" measure and mark the time of human history adopted by the nations of the West in their calendars.  . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 25, 2017

Irony of ironies, a person who always was and will be – chose to die that we may live forever. The specter of everlasting death no longer courses . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 11, 2017

We're invited to a drama in three acts called, Christmas. Act One, everyone knows the story. The curtain rises and a nativity scene appears including some . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 25, 2015

Christmas begins and ends on Easter with the Resurrection of the Son of Man from death fulfilling Jesus' purpose being born man. While many in the world . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 8, 2015

Confession is good for the soul, an opportunity to face denial and avoidance. These psychological phenomena have no limits and affect all of us which the . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

July 29, 2015

On reflection (there's that word, again, with the prefix, "re" ) what does it mean to retreat? Perhaps, I should have delved into the meaning of retreat before . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

July 15, 2015

As the question denotes a monastic retreat is associated with monastery and for our purposes a retreat away from the world and time away for the sake of one's . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

June 15, 2015

I have no fear that marriage between a man and a woman will disappear from our land and not remain the norm – unless, unless as a nation we continue to . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

April 19, 2015

"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been 40 years since my last confession." Often the penitent will then pause and add, "Father, I do not know where . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

April 2, 2015

He was resigned to continue with his miracles and healings knowing they were only temporary measures, signposts along the long and winding road to a hill . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 27, 2015

"Is Confession Dead?" is the title of a recent article I read which summarizes accurately the general disfavor of the Sacrament of Reconciliation among too many . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 23, 2015

"Cry me a river. I cried a river over you." So many scandals to cry over in the world which daily appear in the media including scandals in the Church but no . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 12, 2015

The Church for good reasons has stirred up a pot of discontent about marriage and remarried Catholics. Many in the church posit a polarity between church . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

February 3, 2015

No, I would not give you false hope On this strange and mournful day But the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away Oh, little darling of mine I . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 26, 2015

Of the four gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – Mark's gospel takes us on a journey. Our journey, not simply Jesus'. The entire Bible . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 21, 2015

God the Father speaks only twice in the New Testament, first at Jesus' baptism and later at Jesus' transfiguration. God the Father, "Our Father who is in heaven . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 12, 2015

After Jesus' baptism the horror show begins. Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by Satan. Satan has won the first battle with the old . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 5, 2015

The truth be told, none of us knows the consequences of his beliefs and decisions. Mary and Joseph were not aware of the trials they would face together in the . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 24, 2014

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You may freely eat of every tree of . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 20, 2014

Today, December 21st, the Winter solstice, is the darkest day of the year. We are enshrouded in nearly sixteen hours of darkness four days before the birth of . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 13, 2014

Why does John the Baptist dominate the Gospel leading to the birth of Christ who when asked "Who are you?", said, 'I am not the Christ. I am the voice of one . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 7, 2014

The poet, William Butler Yeats, described "The Second Coming" of Jesus, "A vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

November 30, 2014

She had left without much of a good bye and traveled three days to Judea to assist her cousin who was six months' pregnant. Elizabeth was well beyond her years . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

November 11, 2014

"The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

June 7, 2014

He was the same Jesus whom the Apostles knew before. His demeanor had changed or, rather, the Apostles' attitudes had changed after Jesus rose from the dead. . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

May 24, 2014

There were times when Jesus' assertions were met with deafening silence. The time, for instance, when he drove the money brokers from the temple and the high . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

May 12, 2014

"Hey, I'm working my way back to you . . . and the happiness that died I let it get away do-do, do-da, do (Been paying every day) ." I could go on with the rest . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

April 28, 2014

Jesus' disciples and Apostles from the beginning were being prepared for the future, but they did not progress seriously enough until late in their relationship . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

April 20, 2014

'Do not let your hearts be troubled [Jesus told them]. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many rooms. Were it not so, would I . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

April 13, 2014

When we hear or read the Gospel – it is God who speaks to us, the better part of prayer. In reading or hearing the Gospel God invites us into the heart . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

April 8, 2014

There is no event or story in the Gospel which reveals more about Jesus' humanity and divinity than Lazarus' resurrection from death. There are other instances . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 31, 2014

Irreconcilable differences – who is to blame? Perhaps we have been involved in such personal differences: husband and wife, father and son, mother and . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 24, 2014

When good things happen unexpectedly accept them without question. When Jesus and his Apostles were returning to Galilee from Jerusalem and were passing through . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 17, 2014

Jesus expects from us the same faith and courage which Abram and his son Isaac demonstrated – a father ready to offer his obedient son's life to God. It . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 9, 2014

God doesn't have a memory but we do. God doesn't need a memory but we do. God doesn't forget but we do. We read in Sacred Scripture that "Jesus Christ is the . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 6, 2014

Even for the atheist there is no denying, "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 2, 2014

Although Jesus said he "came not to abolish but to fulfill the law" he was the only man to live among us who fulfilled the law, the "perfection of God's law" . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

February 23, 2014

Following Jesus in the beginning was so promising. For a while the people could forget their hardships under the rule of Rome's soldiers and tax collectors. . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

February 17, 2014

The journey of Jesus out in the world – for Jesus and his disciples was not staged but happened in actual time, in real places and real circumstances like . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

February 9, 2014

It is no coincidence that the precursor of the Christ, John the Baptist, began his ministry in a desert calling for repentance, and Jesus after he was baptized . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

February 2, 2014

Becoming Jesus can take two courses. One, the Son of Mary who became Jesus and, two, you and I who can become Jesus' disciples. We had nothing to do, at first, . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 29, 2014

Nothing much man-made achieves perfectly it's intended purpose neither automobiles or contraceptives. Next year will mark fifty years since the publication . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 26, 2014

Christmas and New Year's Day are over. The tree and the outdoor lights have been taken down or should be, and now we deal with bloated balances on our credit . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 13, 2014

Now that the celebration has ended – Happy New Year – what are our plans for a future without an expiration date while these days are waning. That . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 4, 2014

The Magi, seekers of the truth, their number we will not know until the last judgment, the mysterious men who came "from the East" to find the Christ. They . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

January 1, 2014

Jesus was one of only two people born in the fullness of God's grace not affected by original sin. The other was Jesus' mother Mary befitting the Mother of God. . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 30, 2013

I would not claim that poinsettias miraculously turn red at Christmas, but the coincidence is remarkable. Actually, the process begins many days before . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 24, 2013

Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather, he emptied himself and took the form of a slave . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 23, 2013

There is nothing alive more dependent on its kind than humankind. By comparison nearly all other living things at birth function well on their own although they . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 15, 2013

They were homeless but grateful that they had found some housing while she was expecting. They planned to return home after the child was born. They knew they . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

December 8, 2013

We all have baby pictures some of them our own. And such a mysterious transformation we undergo. Hard to believe I was that young until I see another baby, . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 3, 2013

As I began to prepare for this Sunday's liturgy, the 3rd Sunday of Lent, a labor we bear together in living out the Word of God at Mass my thoughts turned to . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

March 1, 2013

The Catholic Church has stood more than two millennia. Were it to 'fall' it would have happened long ago suffering as it did numerous schisms and scandals . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

February 16, 2013

Three generations have passed since passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the non-violent civil disobedience which roused the conscience of a nation that . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

February 14, 2013

I. Building up the Household of God In 1960 the American culture and the Catholic Church in America was not ready for the sudden appearance of "the Pill" and . . .

Fr. Tom Bartolomeo

February 13, 2013

Front and center contesting our government's recent Health and Human Services Mandate stands the Catholic Church, not on political grounds but on higher moral . . .