I recently received a class-wide email from another mother of a child in my son’s preschool class. She had joined the class for a Thanksgiving celebration and stopped to ask each child what they were most thankful for. Touched by…
Hope in the Imperfect
Good for the Soul
For many people confessing our faults to anyone else is not easy. We fear looking bad or what others will think about us. It also makes us very vulnerable to tell our failings to another person. Yet the sacrament of…
Giving of Ourselves
I recently read an article entitled “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” written by Peter Singer. In the article, Singer suggests that, if all people were to give as much as morally achievable to the poor (he calls this marginal utility), we could…
Gracious Communication in the Internet Age
Today was going along just fine — productive, happy, and relatively stress free — until a certain email crossed my desk. The name and subject of the email will be withheld so that hopefully I can forget this dialogue ever…
Bring a Friend
One of the ways you can celebrate the Year of Faith is to bring a friend to church. A personal invitation to a neighbor, coworker or family member can be effective—and yet risky. The great calling of the New Evangelization…
Lessons from Catholic Missions
Today, December 3rd, is the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, the Patron Saint of Missions, so let’s reflect for a moment on how we can apply the success of Catholic missions abroad to our local New Evangelization efforts. Without the…
Waiting
The days are coming when I will fulfill the promise… Jer. 33:14 By now the turkey is long gone. The exhaustion and excitement of hitting the big sales has dissipated. Many of us don’t remember the score of the big…
Evangelizing Our Kids
One day, the Pharisees tested Jesus with an important question – of all 613 of the Bible’s laws, which is most important? The Lord quickly shot back a response: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,…
Big Fish / Little Fish
In the scheme of things it can sometimes be too easy to become unaware of our proper place in the world. We focus on our own career, family, hobbies, and personal responsibilities. That’s enough to draw anyone’s full time attention,…
Just Talk to Me
Just a short walk from my home is a cozy cafe that I visit daily. Many evenings I can be found sipping a great Fair Trade blend of coffee, nibbling on one of their delightful sweets, and engrossed in a…