There are so many holy people in the Bible whose names we are familiar with:  of course our savior, Jesus, his mother Mary and foster father, Joseph.  We recognize the names of the apostles, Mary Magdalene, Martha, Gabriel the Archangel,…

I have always been joyously afflicted with wanderlust. In It’s a Wonderful Life, when George Bailey tells Uncle Billy that the three most exciting sounds in the world are anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles, something stirs in my…

In the city where I live there is a reproduction of Jesus and the apostles at the Last Supper. The figures are made out of wax, and are patterned on Leonardo da Vinci’s fresco painted on the wall of the…

“And they compelled a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry His cross.  And they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha” (Mark 15:21-22).

Carrying Jesus’ cross.  It…

I’d like to continue our examination of the forthcoming changes to the English translation of the Roman Missal, resuming at the Ecce Agnus Dei where the priest will elevate the Eucharist and say:

“Behold the…

Imagine if you decided to read a mystery novel or a long suspense thriller—a book by Robert Ludlum, say—three or four paragraphs at a time over 3 years.  You decided as well that you were not going to read the…

A couple of years ago, a Pastor asked me to provide a catechetical training day for teachers in his Catholic school and CCD program. One of my first questions to him was what issues had developed requiring my assistance. The…

I have a lot of sympathy for New Age folks. Not sympathy with their ideas (if one can use such a strong word as “idea” for the quicksilver emotionalism and muddy mixture of suburban folk religion that is the New…

The Dutch are, on statistical average, the tallest people in the world.  To anyone with even a passing familiarity with Dutch cuisine, the question is:  how is this possible?

I spent a month in Holland on an exchange program, living…

“You can’t handle the truth!” Jack Nicholson growls at Tom Cruise in one of the most well-known movie scenes from A Few Good Men.

I don’t remember much about the movie but do remember that particular line. There was something…