Confessions of an Ex-Drug Addict
By guest writer T.W., with Jean Elizabeth Seah. I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, He can work through anyone. – attributed to St. Francis of Assisi My life thus far might seem a waste, even something loathsome, to many people, but now I know it has been redeemed, and […]
The Joy and Dignity of Work
No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him. – James Russell Lowell, poet Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure. But the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. [F]ailure means a stripping away of the inessential. […]
Prison Societies
By guest writer Steve Kellmeyer. It is usually said that Western democracies are the most free societies on earth. But is that true? This video provides a rather different way of deciding what societies constitute prison societies. If the information presented above is accurate, and there is no reason to think it is not, then […]
A Prophetic Trilogy of Real-Life Catholicism
Have you ever encountered a story – whether in the form of a book, film, television – that seemed written especially for you? As I immersed myself in the fictional town of Narbrook, PA, page after page left me marveling at the magnificence and relevance of “The American Tragedy” trilogy – Fatherless, Motherless, Childless – […]
The Seven Deadly Sins in “The Jungle Book”
The Jungle Book (2016) is a masterful adaptation of Kipling’s book, paying due homage to the classic Disney film with its meshing of the familiar soundtrack with exquisitely-rendered new visuals. It is also a tale of growing up in a dangerous world, of fulfilling one’s telos or true end, and of choosing to practice virtue […]
The Falling Away of Humanity from Experiencing God Through Nature
The beauty and complexity of the world is meant to continuously point humanity to our Creator. We are surrounded by trees, mountains, oceans, rivers, lakes, and clouds, and within these things much vibrant life is found, full of color and intricacies that are meant to leave us in awe and wonder. With its incredible and […]
How do we love our neighbors?
When I was young, my siblings and I would often play with a soccer ball in our backyard. Inevitably, someone would powerfully kick the ball and it would go sailing over the privacy fence and into someone else’s yard. While we wanted our ball back, it was a rare occasion that any of us actually […]
Witness to Love
A few years ago I had the opportunity to give a talk at John Paul the Great Academy in Lafayette, Louisiana. While I was there I enjoyed the hospitality of Ryan and Mary-Rose Verret, a young Catholic couple with three children. It was a wonderful stay, a great experience of traditional Cajun hospitality. The Catholic […]
God is my (Life) Coach
“Heads up high… I gotta see your eyes.” And so David Belisle began a speech to his team that has been hailed as one of the most inspirational sports speeches ever. Part of its power comes from the fact that we can see the faces of the little boys he’s talking to. We see their […]
The Conscience of the Modern Man
By guest writer Kachi Ngai. “Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself, but which he must obey, its voice ever calling him to love and do what is good and to avoid evil… For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God… There he is […]
Not the man of my dreams
It is a gift to grow up in a happy, healthy marriage. By the time I truly started to pay attention to how my parents interacted with each other, they were closing in on twenty years of marriage. By the time I married, my parents were wrapping up their thirtieth year of marriage. It can […]
Of Mountains and Molehills
One of my favorite throwaway phrases is “first world problems.” It never fails to make me laugh. Whether it’s my sister and a friend complaining about having to replace the batteries in her battery-operated wine opener, or my friends and I griping about too many fashion images and not enough fitness pins in our Pinterest […]
Kneeling at My First Mass
By guest writer Tasman Westbury. In the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. – Philippians 2:10 I was raised in the Uniting Church, but never truly grasped any of its teachings, and spent several years as an atheist before a series of […]
The Value of Almost Losing My Vision
I just went through a difficult time. As I sat there closing one eye, then opening it while closing the other, going back and forth looking through each one, I thought that maybe the reason why there seemed to be a dark blotch covering half the view of my left eye was because I was […]
Divorce Affected Me, Even Though It Wasn’t Supposed To
Guest post by Anonymous I was seven when my entire world changed. The life I knew, the life I thought was coming. Gone. You may be thinking… gosh, what kind of awful tragedy happened to this girl? Abuse? Tragic accident? Death of a loved one? Abandonment? Terrible medical diagnosis? None of those. Divorce. My parents separated. And divorced. Their marriage ended. A […]
