I know I should carve out more time for family and sleep. And prayer. Especially prayer. If only I prayed more, then everything else would go smoother. So I make the effort. And then my phone rings. Or the dogs…
Let Your Prayer Life Explode with Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity
Radiant With the Splendor
Christmas 2014 has been put away. I miss it already. The beautiful (and large) trees are disassembled and packed strategically in their original tiny boxes which defy and challenge the physical laws of mass and volume. The Santa Claus figurine…
How Different the Saints
On the last page of Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis writes: “Until you have given up your whole self to Him, you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be most among the most natural men and not…
The Feet Washing
I dread the trip from Dallas to Palm Springs to care for my sister, Betty Clare (BC to the family), who is recuperating from cancer surgery. Our dysfunctional relationship, although healing some since our mother’s death, still has echoes of…
Catholic Pop Culture 2014
As I did last year, I shall recall any good things from the popular culture that are harmonious or helpful to Catholic culture. And as I wrote last year, it is not necessary to indulge a fascination with pop culture…
Be a Saint
Catholic Answers Live radio show host Patrick Coffin always closes the show with the admonition, “Be a saint…what else is there?” For a long time it just sort of went in one ear and out the other, until one day…
Thou Shalt Not Cyberbully
On a recent episode of The Son Rise Morning Show, host Matt Swaim and I looked at the topic of cyberbullying. The conversation was prompted by a Vatican press conference on the topic: Entitled “Stop threats on the internet,” the…
Culture and Evangelization: Working with the People You’ve Got
One of the realities of parish and community life today is that we nearly always have a meeting of multiple cultures. My own parish is home to first-generation European, Asian, Latin-American, Middle Eastern, and African immigrants, born-and-raised Americans from several…
Giving God the Gift of Obedience
You know the drill. You’ve got the list. It includes relatives close and distant, the neighbor’s kids, teachers, friends and so on. But I’ll bet there’s someone of great import that you left off your list: God. Right, that’s God,…
Our Savior has Come
T’was the night before Christmas, when deep in my soul I felt such a peace, not even a worry The manger was set, the tree lights twinkled Knowing Jesus would soon be here The faithful were sure the Son would…