Fr Tom Gardner

Over the years, many people have asked me who my dog, Benny, is named after. Some may think I named him after Pope Benedict XVI, but I didn’t. As much as I love Papa Benny, my Benny is named after someone else. He isn’t named after the song by Elton John, as catchy as it […]

I will never forget the bizarre experience of living through the Spring of 2020, as I’m sure you won’t either. When news of drastic responses to the pandemic started coming in the waning days of February 2020, I was on vacation in San Diego. During the later part of that trip, I got word that

At the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies, there is a moment that always moves me. It is at the coronation of Aragorn as king of the humans. Huge crowds surround King Aragorn, and right beside him are his hobbit friends with whom he fought side by side. When the hobbits,

It is such a blessing to be with you all tonight. Truly, this is a night to celebrate God’s abundant love. As we heard in that beautiful reading from St. John’s Gospel, Jesus “loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.” Tonight I am happy to gather with you as

One of my favorite Saints is St. Teresa of Calcutta, known more commonly as Mother Teresa. I love her because she was a woman unafraid to proclaim challenging truths. In the midst of her acceptance speech for the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa had this to say:  And I feel one thing I want

Recently I was out walking with Benny and I saw an empty milk jug getting blown down the road. I grabbed it and carried it with me the rest of the walk, throwing it away once we got back to the rectory. As we walked, I felt the emptiness of this gallon jug and thought

In my last year of seminary, I had the joy of checking off a bucket list item along with my brother Billy. That summer and fall, we trained together for the Columbus Marathon. It worked out perfectly, because it just so happened that on Wednesdays my class schedule was completely free. Besides prayer times, I

I always get fired up in a movie when I see someone who is a warrior. One of my favorite warrior characters is Gandalf from the “Lord of the Rings” movies. I love the fact that he is a gentle and caring father figure to so many in those movies, but when push comes to

Today as we allow Jesus to challenge us through the readings we just heard, I have two fairly different people on my mind–Bob Ross and Michael Jordan. I can remember many nights being mesmerized by the basketball feats of Michael Jordan as I watched him win championships with the Chicago Bulls. A different kind of

Recently I found a video on YouTube entitled, “Best Play in College Football History.” With that title, you would think it would be a video clip of some wide receiver making a seemingly impossible catch, or maybe a running back slipping an impossible number of tackles to get to the endzone, or maybe an offense