Meditations
Do You Hear What I Hear?
October 13, 2025
By Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.
How can we avoid the harmful affects of the polarization that characterizes so much of our lives these days? One step toward this end is to cultivate a greater understanding and appreciation for the idea of relativity in human behavior.
Adversaries Needed?
September 19, 2025
By Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.
Movies depend on conflict between good and bad. We love it when good overcomes evil and all is well again. Plots like this entertain us because we wish real life was like that. In real life, though, no one is totally good and no one totally bad. Real humans are a mix of good and bad. And that feels uncomfortable.
To Be or Not to Be … a Cynic
August 14, 2025
An Assembling God’s Puzzle video
By Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.
Blowing off steam about everything that is wrong in the world — and there’s plenty of that — can be therapeutic, but if such griping becomes the norm of our conversations and thinking, we can easily slip into cynicism, which is not helpful and doesn’t feel good.
Take Nothing for the Journey
July 10, 2025
An Assembling God’s Puzzle video
By Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.
Jesus’ teaching about what to take on a journey — nothing — is actually good advice for building trusting relationships. Don’t bring your “stuff” into the relationship; listen deeply and respec their views and situation, understand their struggles.
The Rollercoaster Torture
June 10, 2025
An Assembling God’s Puzzle video
By Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.
Life is full of ups and downs, like a roller coaster, and that fact is a piece of life’s puzzle that we must deal with. Depending on how we deal with it, it can be torture, or it can be simply another difficult aspect of life to be navigated. How do we avoid the torture?
That’s Irritating!
May 13, 2025
An Assembling God’s Puzzle video
By Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.
Feeling irritated is often a clue that something needs to change. It is much easier to pin the source of our irritation on others, demanding that they change, rather than considering that the irritation may be calling us to make some changes within.
What’s the Problem?
April 23, 2025
By Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.
You can’t fix a relationship or a behavior like a mechanic fixes a car or a surgeon “fixes” a patient. Behaviors and relationships don’t have parts that can be fixed or replaced when the break or malfunction.
I’ve Got It! (And You Don’t!)
March 24, 2025
An Assembling God’s Puzzle video
By Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.
Human beings have a lot of problems getting along with each other, and there are no simple solutions, magic formulas or magic bullets that instantly dissolve disagreements. But there are things we can practice to smooth the path to living and working together.
Help! Save me!
February 19, 2025
By Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.
What is the best approach to helping out someone in need? Most often, a team approach is needed. The helper and the “helpee” together look at options available and togther settle on what might actually be helpful. The old saying still holds here, “Two heads are better than one.”
Step by Step, Piece by Piece
January 24, 2025
By Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.
As a counselor I often find myself disappointing people by telling them there are no easy answers to ridding themselves of whatever is causing them pain, that there are no “quick fixes” to their problems. Deep down inside, everybody knows this.