Fr. John Amsberry

09/03/2026

From Protestant to Catholic to Priest

Beloved,

In last Sunday's homily, Who started your Church?, I talked about Gregg Bronsema. Gregg came to Saint Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon, where I was pastor when I had a Matt Maher concert there in September 2008. He was a protestant at that point in time but through his prayer and research he decided that Jesus Christ only founded one Church and that was the Catholic Church. The teaching authority, unity and apostolic succession, and belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist were ultimately what sold him on becoming Catholic.

I became Gregg’s spiritual director, he went through RCIA, and was so excited to be a part of the Church, receive her sacraments and wisdom, and live for her in the world. I remember him sitting in my office a couple of weeks after he became Catholic at the Easter Vigil and he was talking about how joyful and fulfilled he was. I interrupted him and I said, “Gregg, priesthood?“ Well, that stopped him in his tracks and he didn’t say anything for about 20 seconds and then he began to weep and shake his head up and down, saying, “Yes, yes, yes.” He ended up asking me to vest him at his diaconate ordination in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and then his priestly ordination at the cathedral of St. Mary’s in downtown Portland, Oregon. What a wonderful journey it has been for him and me and everybody who God has touched through this. Gregg is now a diocesan priest in the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon serving three parishes!

Here is a picture of us at his priestly ordination, and I have also included an article that was written up about his journey. Please enjoy the article.

Please enjoy reading about Fr. Gregg’s wonderful journey to the priesthood: https://lakeoswegoreview.com/2016/07/28/new-milepost-on-a-journey-of-faith/

+Fr John Amsberry

Father Gregg Bronsema is the new vicar at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Parish in Lake Oswego. Talk about long, strange trips. A rock-solid Protestant for most of his […]

08/22/2026

The FIRE 🔥 is Coming…

Beloved,

The fires. Yes it is fire season, and in different parts of our country there has been loss of lives, homes, and other property. There was a huge, raging fire, threatening to totally destroy the city of Sisters, Oregon just days before I arrived there a couple of weeks ago. It was 2 miles north of the city and the flames were 150 feet to 200 feet. Apocalyptic scene . Darkened skies, raging wild fire threatening, and the whole town of Sisters was ready to evacuate at any second. Nothing was going to stop that fire and it would’ve eaten up the whole city in no time at all. I have a lot of family and friends who live in Sisters, including my brother and his wife and my niece and her husband and family. Frankly, I didn’t know if Sisters would be still standing by the time I flew in to the Redmond/Bend Airport.

So what happened? Unexpectedly, a wind came up from the south with 1/4 inch of rain and it diverted this devouring inferno. Many people thought it was a saving intervention from God. I have no problem believing that.

What was really cool is how the whole community was responding to the possible loss of everything including their very lives. Everybody was helping each other out. They were concerned not just about themselves but about their neighbors and making sure their very lives would be spared as well as what valuables they could save. It was kind of all for one and one for all.

What is the point that I am trying to draw out of the fire? That we are all in the same situation. The fire is going to come. It’s the fire, whether it is a car wreck, cancer or terminal sickness, or just the body giving out an old age, that will take everything away from us, even our lives. It’s called death.

So, we know this fire is coming and my prayer is this can be an image for us all to live for each other, to always sacrifice our lives for each other so we will all know Jesus Christ, who rescues us from the inevitable fire we will all face in this life to be brought into the glory of His Kingdom.

Oh, how we need Jesus Christ! And oh how we need to share him with others who have no idea how they are going to make it out of the fire alive.

+Fr John Amsberry

08/08/2026

BROKEN HEART?

Beloved,

What breaks your heart? Losing money, which has happened to me, can break your heart. Starvation, war, killing, abortion, human trafficking, inhumane treatment of people including immigrants, divorce and family breakdown can all break your heart. I have experienced deep betrayal of three of my closest priest friends over the last couple of decades. It hurts and it's not exactly going away.

What is breaking your heart right now?

Jeremiah is known as the "Weeping Prophet." He has a broken heart. The people would not listen to him, and he was simply calling them to obey God and enjoy the super abundance of living according to the dictates of God's life. They, in union with Satan, said "No". Not only did they say no, they reviled him, persecuted him, hurt him, threw him in a cistern to die, and it is thought that he was stoned to death by his very own Jewish people in the year 570 BC. His heart was broken because the broken hearts that he served just got more broken.

That's what breaks my heart- when the broken hearts that I seek to serve in church and in this entire world, choose to stay broken and get more broken.

Jeremiah speaks to his brothers and sisters in exile who are broken. They have been taken away from all that is familiar to them and are living in a foreign land where they are oppressed, enslaved, and their dignity has been thrown out of the window. But, alas, in the midst of us there is God and God speaking through his prophet Jeremiah. God says that he will restore his brokenhearted people.

Restore means to bring something back to its original state. And what is that original state? It is how life was in the Garden of Eden before death and hell and sin entered. Nothing but loving friendship, living in the perfect relationship with God and each other with no pain, suffering, or death.

What is my heart broken over? In the end, there is only one thing my heart is broken over, and it is the same thing that Jeremiah's heart is broken over. The brokenness or even end of our friendship with God and sharing that with each other.

Frankly, I think most of us are off point when it comes to answering what most breaks their heart in this life. Truly, when all is said and done, the only heartbreak in life is losing friendship with Jesus Christ and not being able to share that with everyone you meet. All these other heartaches are temporary, they will come and go, but to lose friendship with Christ is the unending, torturous heartache.

So, what is the answer to the really only one heartache there is in life to which all the other heartaches are just symptoms of?

Restore. Bring people back to their original state. Bring them back to Heaven. Bring them back to Jesus. That is the point. Bringing back everyone into friendship with Jesus and sharing that friendship with each other. Restore. You Beloved baptized, go! Do the point of your baptism and heal the only broken heartedness there is in this life. Restore!

+ Fr. John Amsberry

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08/04/2026

I believe if you take to this article to your heart and mind it will change your spiritual life.

Beloved,

In last Sunday’s homily, Everything means Nothing?, I referenced Jesus in Matthew 13 quoting Isaiah about the people being “gross” of heart. Gross of heart can mean that our heart is fat, thick, calloused, dull. Spiritually speaking, when we are gross of heart, we are basically dead men walking. But if we open our gross heart to Jesus Christ and experience him, it is like a lightning bolt of his infinite love, goodness, beauty and power. Through this encounter, Jesus Christ becomes for us the most undeniable and irrefutable reality there is.

Once we experience the truth of God, then we have a decision to make. Will I accept it or reject it? Will I obey God or disobey God? Here is where it can get really sticky and confusing. Feelings can come into play and get us way off track from the reality of who God is. Emotions override everything else, including the truth and reality of God, which are put off to the side. But do not be deceived, one day every knee shall bow before Jesus Christ and we will not be judged on how we felt about things. Rather, we will be judged on the eternal truth of who Jesus Christ is and the radical obedience his love requires.

So what do we do with all these feelings that can get us way of course from the life we are made for and must submit to? There is the story of Fact, Faith, and Feeling who are three men walking on a wall. Fact goes first, Faith second, and Feeling third. As long as Faith keeps his eyes on Fact, all three stay on the wall and make progress. But as soon as Faith takes his eyes off of Fact and turns around to see how Feeling is doing, Faith falls off the wall and Feeling falls, while Fact walks on. The point is that the object of our faith is not feeling but fact, not subjective experience but objective truth.

People get in beefs with me over the truth taught by the Catholic Church. Well, it is not really people, but someone who is somehow controlled by a darkness that hates that truth, and will never obey that truth. Often their emotions are being played on and preyed on to stay in that lifeless darkness. My response? “You cannot change the truth, but the truth can change you.”

Jesus never said your emotions would set you free. He taught that the Truth shall make you free.

His Day. His Way. All Day.

+Fr John Amsberry

07/28/2026

RISK?
Beloved,

There is a business principle, “No risk, no return. The greater the risk, the greater “potential” return.” Why do I say potential? Because the investment could go north or it could go south so you can’t “bank” on it for a positive return. This holds true for the spiritual world, but is also different. In the spiritual world if there is no risk, then there is no return. But how it differs is that in the spiritual world the greater the risk, the greater actual return. Why can we say this? Every time we risk on Jesus, he will only cause our souls to rise north, closer to him. The truth of God never changes and he fulfills all of his promises. And his greatest promise is eternal life in heaven. How is that for actual return? (This is in my book, which hopefully will be out this fall!).

On Wednesday, July 22, we celebrated the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene. Yes, I was so happy when Pope Francis honored Mary Magdalene and her love for Jesus by making her memorial into a feast.

Mary Magdalene was a risk taker. In John 20, we see Mary came to the tomb while it was still dark. She didn’t wait for dawn to go to the tomb. She was in the dark and she could have fallen or even been assaulted. She demonstrates the urgency of love, which means taking risks. If I was a betting man, I bet Mary Magdalene would put her life on the line for Jesus Christ.

When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, he is saying I give you my Most, Best and All. The infinite God, the eternal King, the one who is without beginning or end and created all that it is, risks everything on us. How can we not be inspired to do the same for him after eating His body and drinking His blood?

After all, as Christians, aren’t we aspiring to be just like him?

Let me ask you a risky question. What percentage of Christians in this world are uninspiring, unchanged and uninteresting?

What percentage of baptized Catholics have communicated to you by their life that they would give you their most, their best, their all so that you would know Jesus. That would be a tough question for me to answer because the majority of Catholics don’t go to church so how would I ever know anything about their most, their best, they’re all? Talk about uninspiring.

The moral of the story? Risk! We need inspiration, we need change, we need to know the endless fascination of our God. That is what we are created for and that is what most people in this face of the Earth do not know.

+Fr John Amsberry

07/14/2026

Birthday. Yes, today is my 62nd birthday. The youngest of eight boys, I am most grateful to mom and dad for leading me to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and fully surrender to Him in the life of His church He started 2000 years ago. I have been blessed with an awesome family – both natural and spiritual.

Should I start taking out Social Security now and retire as soon as I can? Absolutely not! I can never retire from the fire of God‘s Divine Love. We surrender every last molecule to Jesus Christ so that he will be glorified as the King of the Universe and every soul will be saved by the sacrifice of His life for us on the cross! That is the exact opposite of retiring! More and more of you, Lord Jesus, in our lives. Be our all in all.

Beloved, may you be forever overwhelmed by the goodness of God!

+Father John Matthew Joshua Amsberry

-My baby picture and then me 61 years later in the middle of 4000 priests, in the middle of hundreds of thousands of people in the Vatican Square, including over 100 Cardinals and thousands of deacons and religious sisters, at Pope, Leo XIV inauguration mass. Talk about being spliced into the infinite wonder of heaven! 

07/11/2026

Priesthood Ordination Anniversary

Beloved,

29 years ago this Sunday, July 12, I was ordained a priest of Jesus Christ. As you probably know, I am the youngest of eight boys and growing up I remember asking mom and dad if I had to go to school as long as my brothers went to school when I saw them graduating from college and pursuing postgraduate degrees. I dreaded being Interminably stuck in school. So, go figure. I ended up going to law school for one year, getting my MBA, and spending eight years total in graduate school collecting three masters degrees. God has a great sense of humor.😇

But being a priest is much more than getting three masters degree or a classroom education. The essence of being a priest, of being a Christian, is learning to love with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. Well, in order to love as Jesus loves, you have to experience it first. You cannot give what you do not have.

When I first encountered the love of Jesus Christ, I knew it was what I had been searching for all my life. It was the peace that passes understanding, the hope that does not disappoint, the fulfillment of all my desires. My immediate response to experiencing Jesus Christ became the fire of my soul – I just wanted everyone else to know His amazing love. I wanted to give my life for this, my everything, my body and my blood.

About 15 years ago I remember standing in front of about 5,500 kids at a Steubenville summer Youth Conference at Cox Arena (now called Viejas Arena) at SDSU. As I shared with the youth from the stage how overwhelming and endlessly good God‘s love is, I told them that my hope and prayer was that, if need be, I would give my life to prove to them how much they are loved by Jesus Christ.

That fire has only grown over 29 years. I just want to love as Jesus loves. I know I’m not anything close to perfect, but I will keep trying my best to become more and more like Him. That is my goal and I’m going to keep shooting for it!

Thank you for the countless ways you have loved me. Yes, it is all about His love. What else is there? It’s everything! And please know that I am trying to do my best to love you.

I want to keep the main thing, the main thing. So, after 29 years of priesthood, I say to you, “You are loved!”

+Fr John Amsberry

07/09/2026

So often we come to prayer with our agenda already written, asking Jesus to bless our plans instead of surrendering to His.

Real prayer begins with an empty page.

It means coming before the Lord saying, I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know which way is up. I simply want to be with You. Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening.

The greatest obstacles to prayer are often our own agendas, our suffering, and forgetting our identity. We become consumed by what we want to accomplish or by the burdens we carry, instead of fixing our eyes on the One who heals, leads, and loves us.

Who are you?

Saint John could have identified himself by all he accomplished. Instead, his identity was simple:

“I am the one Jesus loves.”

May that become our identity as well.

07/08/2026

Love or Fear?… Every day, we choose which house we’ll live in.

Here is how fear quietly shapes our lives and how Christ invites us into something greater.

🎥 Watch the full video now on YouTube

07/02/2026

Pray with me...