I am not qualified to write this article. I will freely admit that up front, lest anyone accuse me of presenting a better picture of myself than what is found in reality. But truth is truth and the truth is…
Resolution in the Abstract
The Grateful-for-Adversity Grandmother
Have you ever been grateful for something negative that happened to you? Well, maybe not while it’s happening. A friend of mine is a classic doting grandmother. Nothing fills her with joy more than a visit from her baby grandson,…
We Are the Sowers
Our parish has a middle school youth group called EDGE. It is a LifeTeen program that eight other adults join me in running. We meet every Monday evening to share the faith with about 70 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders. It’s…
God and Money
Readings for March 2, 2014: Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time In the ancient world, most peoples believed in a universe populated by many gods. However, even without the help of biblical revelation, Greek philosophers figured something out. There could only…
Become a Child of Christ
I’ve always loved today’s Gospel, and I like to give my imagination lots of room to run as I visualize what it must have been like to be one of the children with Jesus that day. Most commentaries focus on…
Lousy Parents and the Case for Unkempt Souls
Around St. Blog’s recently, we’ve looking at the “What’s wrong with catechesis?” problem, and the refrain that is not news to anyone is, “What do we do with these parents?” You know the ones . . . they drop their…
Clarity
You hear it a lot. You hear it in contract negotiation, in teaching, in foreign policy, in the writing of treaties and agreements. Clarity. People speak about “clarity” all of the time. We aim for it, we wish for it…
Proclamation Gets Personal
“the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:3) While assisting in a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium, I watched as a catechist read this passage from the Gospel…
Turn the Other Cheek?
Readings for February 23, 2014: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time “Love your enemies.” “Turn the other cheek.” (Mat 5:38-40). This sounds admirable to some, but preposterous to others. The 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche thought such talk promotes a society…
My Rosary, My Salvation
Last summer while visiting with my brother and his family at his cottage in Eastern Ontario, we decided to visit a historical Catholic Church at a nearby picturesque town and take in an afternoon Mass. I asked him if we…