Fr Tom Gardner

What can we say today except, thank you Jesus! Thank You for Your conquering love. Thank You for pouring out Your blood for our forgiveness. Thank you for winning us the victory over death, sin and hell! There is a moment in the movie, The Passion of the Christ, that always strikes me. It is […]

Years ago, my brother, Billy, and I went to a punk rock concert together with some of my friends at the Newport Music Hall near OSU campus. One of the other people in the group was a bubbly blonde girl named Maura. Although Maura and Billy had met briefly before, he didn’t remember it. But

Recently I talked with my Mom and Dad about their wedding in 1977. They both remember it like it was yesterday. You might think my Dad spent the morning getting dressed and waiting for the wedding to start, but there was more to it than that. The reception was to take place in the cafeteria

There are certain movies I could watch over and over for the rest of my life and not get sick of them. One of those is “Field of Dreams.” This movie captures the spiritual path of a man trying to follow a power greater than himself who ends up doing some seemingly crazy things, above

There’s a moment from the movie, The Passion of the Christ, which came to me as I prayed with this weekend’s readings. It is the decisive moment for Simon of Cyrene. As we know from praying the Stations of the Cross and reading the accounts of Jesus’ Passion, Simon was the man the Romans pulled

As you all may recall, I am a huge fan of the “Lord of the Rings” movies. I believe they belong in the conversation along with other movies considered cinema classics, movies like “The 10 Commandments,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Gone With the Wind,” and others. Like all cinema classics, the “Lord of the Rings” stories

The Gospel passage this weekend has my mind on the beautiful love that God has for us and the way He relentlessly pursues us. Recently I heard the story of Shayne Smith coming into the Catholic church, as shared in a conversation he had with Matt Fradd. Matt has a YouTube channel I really enjoy

When I was a bright-eyed college freshman, I felt so excited to be living with other men whom I could truly call brothers in Christ. One brother I particularly looked up to was named Dan. Dan had recently served for a year in a ministry called NET, which stands for National Evangelization Teams. While on

When I was 16 years old, “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones” was released in theaters.  One particular scene from this movie came to mind as I was pondering our readings for this Sunday. It is a moment where Yoda, the diminutive green sage mainly known for his wisdom and gravitas, confronts Count

I am so happy to be old enough to appreciate the game of basketball when the Chicago Bulls made their run of championships in the late 90s. It was awe inspiring to watch the play of Michael Jordan along with teammates like Scottie Pippin, Tony Kukoc, Dennis Rodman and others. Of course, Michael was a