Approaching Dignity, Skipping the Spin
Last weekend, I was one of the speakers at a pro-life rally in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. I’d never spoken at such an event, but, because I do believe in the inherent dignity and worth of every human life, which includes the unborn, I said yes. And after all, if there is any topic that can inform and bolster […]
A Day Without Him
One of the few memories I have of both of my grandfathers is of their reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. When we would drive past a Catholic Church, my dad’s dad would always tip his hat (I love that he always wore hats) and my mother’s father would inevitably cross himself. I can remember my […]
Christ Teaches Us How to Die
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. (1 Peter 2:21) There are many, many lessons to be learned in the example Christ left for us in his suffering and death on the cross. One of those, I believe, […]
Did you hear…
…he is homosexual. …she uses the pill. …she had an abortion. …he sleeps around. …he uses illegal drugs. …he is liberal. …she worked at Planned Parenthood. …she sleeps around. …he drove her to the abortion clinic. …she is lesbian. …she smokes weed. …he watches porn. What you don’t hear: He has homosexual orientation and thinks […]
Beating a Dead Horse for Life
The other day I got into one of those unfortunate situations known as a Facebook debate. Like reality television series, they are easy to be sucked into, nearly impossible to stop, and leave you wondering where the last hour and a half of your life went. On my Facebook page, I posted this article about […]
Reflection on the Holy Land
When visiting my family in March I received many questions concerning “What was your favorite part of the Holy Land?” Perhaps they were looking for certain answers concerning beautiful places. I admit that swimming in the Dead Sea was a neat experience and seeing Middle Eastern markets, landscapes, and people were interesting as well. This […]
Two Rivers
I had seen General Santos City from the air before, but one sees things differently from a fixed wing aircraft than from a helicopter. The choppers fly much lower, much more slowly, never above any but the lowest clouds. The landscape of southern Mindanao is always visible, much as it would be from any of […]
John Paul II’s Legacy Can Help Us Win Back Religious Liberty
The continuous setbacks and attacks on religious liberty that plague men and women of faith in the United States and across the world require responses and actions that not only are intellectually convincing, but also require the engagement of media in creative, engaging, and “culture-ready” ways. With the canonization of John Paul the Great in the immediate […]
Book Review: Saints and Social Justice by Brandon Vogt
Brandon Vogt has written a masterpiece in Saints and Social Justice: A Guide to Changing the World (OSV, May 2014). Brandon’s writing and theological talents have been sharpened to the tenth degree with Saint-master mentor, Bert Ghezzi (author of Voices of the Saints) and Word on Fire powerhouses Steve Grunow and Father Robert Barron in […]
The End of Lent Question
Well, this Lent has been hard. Not that I have ever had an easy Lent since I started taking the spiritual life seriously, so I am not sure what I expected. I think I selfishly wish that my Lent would be full of consolations and insights, but usually right around this time I start to […]
The End of the Anonymous Church
One of the key issues in our church today is that we are disconnected. Regardless of whether the church is full or its empty on a Sunday, most of the attendees hardly say a word to the people next to each other. Much of St. Paul’s epistles are spent documenting the growth and life of […]
Making Every Friday “Good”
Easter is coming; fast! I mean the action, not the adjective. It’s a command. Once Easter comes, it seems, we forget about this wonderful act of self-denial. We break our fast and indulge in whatever it is we gave up for the past 40+ days. (Yes, Lent is longer than 40 days, and actually ends […]
Nothing Changes
By now, those who have been monitoring the events in the Philippines know that the Supreme Court upheld as constitutional the Reproductive Health Law except for eight provisions. In a nutshell, this means that state-sponsored, state-subsidized contraception remains in place. However, the nullification of certain provisions of the law means, among other things, that private […]
A Philosophy of Style
As Catholics, we know that we have a call to be “in the world, not of the world.” I find that many use this catchy phrase as a way to relieve some of the burden of living in the world, reminding us that living in the secular world is temporary and we can make it. […]
NCAA Basketball and Seeking Glory
By the time you are reading this, we will have crowned a new NCAA champion; since the final four has not yet happened while I write, that team could be Kentucky, Florida, Wisconsin, or Connecticut. Most of us are familiar with the events which will happen this weekend: Saturday night will have two games (one […]
Don’t Judge Me, Please Love Me
You hear a lot of things when you walk down a hallway filled with 200 teenage girls. Some hilarious, some tragic, some ridiculous, and some beautiful. At the all-girls high school where I work, though, there is one phrase that I have heard almost every day. It’s an opening line that frustrated me to no […]
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