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…
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…
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…
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…
People are funny about their chosen slaveries. The other day I saw a guy driving down the road dragging a boat behind him like a ball and chain. I’m sure he invests thousands of his discretionary dollars to keep it…
When the novel Sybil came out in 1973, the idea of having 16 different personalities was shocking. Today it’s not only normal, but expected. Online social media split us into our business selves, our party selves, our family selves, our…
It takes faith to be afraid of God. That’s why the following headline in a recent edition of The Wall Street Journal’s Op-Ed section was such an attention grabber: Are Atheists Afraid of God? This was a commentary about a…
If you were like me in high school, any subject that ended in “ometry” made your eyes crust over. If I couldn’t see any practical application of its complexity to my simple life, I reasoned, why expend my few and…
The phrase, “There are no atheists in foxholes,” is appropriate to remember on Memorial Day. It’s also fitting that this year’s holiday falls on the same weekend as the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. On Memorial Day…
Boastfulness is a luxury that seldom lends comfort—not even to the boaster, ultimately. A boast is often made at someone else’s expense. I’ve been guilty of enjoying sweet flattery without acknowledging others who might have deserved a share of that…