Some people live by a simple nihilistic philosophy: “Life’s a witch, then you die” (but they don’t say witch). Those are the same people who might take strange comfort from this Sunday’s more poetic take on the same sentiment as expressed by David’s son, Qoheleth, king in Jerusalem, in our first mass reading (Ecc 1:2; […]

Last weekend, after the murder of three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the local police chief and the sheriff used their press conference explaining what happened as an opportunity for a national call to prayer. They didn’t use one of those convenient catch phrases we hear from politicians at times like these (“Our thoughts […]

The most beautiful eulogy I ever heard was also the shortest. It was spoken about 20 years ago and was for my great aunt, who devoted her life to being God’s servant. She was a nun, and what one of her fellow sisters said about Sister Benigna summarizes an existence we would all love to […]

If you are a fan of the old Seinfeld show (a sitcom that earned eternal life in rerun heaven), you probably quote lines from your favorite episodes. Although its creator called this a show about nothing, something always happened to Jerry and his friends that real people could relate to. In a bizarro way, the […]

In the wild, wild Middle East that was the Jerusalem of Jesus’ time, his disciples sometimes had to depend on the mercy of their quarry to successfully spread the gospel. Our gospel reading this Sunday (Lk 10:1-12, 17-20) indicates how dangerous this mission was and how courageous the disciples were to take it on. To […]