My son Gerard and I just returned from a week at Cub Scout camp, where torrential rain and frequent thunderstorms limited the opportunities for fun stuff like hiking and boating. You can imagine the delight of Gerard and his camp…
Poolside Evangelization
Let Freedom Ring
In the United States, we’ve just celebrated the Fourth of July, or Independence Day. It’s a day celebrating the freedoms for which our forebearers fought and died. Around the world, peoples are protesting, fighting, praying, and working for greater freedom….
The Biggest Challenge of Teaching High School Theology
All teachers have their challenges, and religion teachers are no different. But beyond the usual problems of apathy and lack of diligence there is another all-important obstacle. Unlike most other subjects, theology classes appeal directly to the life choices of…
Praying before Mass
If you’ve ever leafed through a Catholic prayer book, you might have stumbled upon various prayers before Mass (see here or here for some examples). At first glance, these kind of prayers might confirm some of the negative stereotypes about…
The Silver Lining between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
It was one of those feel-good-about-yourself Christian mornings. Rather than hitting the snooze button on my alarm as I so often do, I rustled out of bed and spent an hour reading scripture while the house was still quiet. The…
Highlighting New Evangelizers: Audrey Assad
Why is it that inserting the word “Catholic” in front of many of the things I like (fiction, movies, music) often goes hand-in-hand with an assumption that the quality will be less than what I expect from non-Catholic versions? So…
Restore and Reactivate
Readings for July 7, 2013: Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time To some, being Italian-American means overindulging in pasta and joking about tough guys. But being Italian means being heir to a rich tradition stretching back before the Caesars, including philosophers…
How can you fast during a feast?
I’ve always found today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 9:14-17) difficult to understand. It felt as though Jesus was light years ahead of John’s disciples, and even his own for that matter. Then some thoughtful soul explained that, no, you really can’t…
American Catholics, Take Action!
When I was a child, I loved to play with Play-Doh. My imagination would run wild with ideas of the different things I could create from the vibrant hues of dough. Often I would get the great idea to mix…
Offensive Evangelization
I’m still mulling over a treadmill “conference” I had with a dear friend at the gym. This particular person is very religious, but not Christian. My friend shared the recent experience of being invited to a “dedication” (Baptism type ceremony)…