I clearly recall my mother reading bedtime stories to us. We’d gather on the couch as she handed us our snack of sliced apples. However, these stories were not about princesses, superheroes, or the like. We would instead curl up…
St. Joseph: Wonder Worker
I pray to St. Joseph every single day. Someone once said to me that St. Joseph actually had it pretty hard in his house. He sat down at the dinner table between the Incarnate Word and the Immaculate Conception; if…
Confessions of a Former Tabloid Writer
What do O.J. Simpson, the Bachelorette, Charlie Sheen, and Angeline Jolie all have in common? The tabloids love them. On the way to the grocery store checkout, one cannot help but notice headlines flashing the latest scandals. If the high…
Lenten Transfiguration
Readings for March 16, 2014: Second Sunday of Lent Imagine: you are ten years past customary retirement age. It’s time finally to kick back and relax. You live in a great city where everything is at your fingertips – shopping…
What’s the Role of the Laity?
I was given a review copy of Catholic Laity in the Mission of the Church: Living Out Your Lay Vocation by Russell Shaw. I looked at the cover: a blob of faceless people dressed the same, doing no-skill-no-brains heavy lifting,…
The Eyes of Love
How can this blemished church be Christ’s Church? How can this mountain of sinners be the city on a hill? The Catholic Church has many critics today. They often point to scars from the past and to wounds still healing…
Spiritual Cross Training
If you’re looking for a new way to pray, Catholic spirituality is simply brimming [overflowing!] with set prayers, specific patterns for prayer, and more. There’s the Liturgy of the Hours, the first century practice of praying the Our Father three…
The Great Deception
Readings for March 9, 2014: First Sunday of Lent As I crossed the great divide of puberty, I formed a vivid image of God.. He was a grumpy old man on a throne with a frown on his face. Every…
Why the Bible At All?
I’ve had two very different people this week tell me that they don’t believe the Christian faith because the Bible is “written by the hands of men.” Think about what that statement says. If you don’t believe in something merely…
Journeying with Verbum, Scripture, and Community This Lent
One of the Lenten devotions I’m most excited about this year is my participation in Verbum’s terrific (and free!) Lenten Journey. First, for those of you who may not already know Verbum, here is an overview of their services: Verbum…