Catholic. Pastoral. Trusted.
Let me start by acknowledging that I’m a big fan of pop culture. I don’t like everything, but pop culture offers music, movies, art, books, and other works that can be entertaining, energetic, and redeeming. So please note that I speak here as a fan of pop culture. But pop...
Gospel Time Trekkers Danger at Sea Braving the Storm Shepherds to the Rescue MARIA GRACE DATENO; ILLUSTRATED BY PAUL CUNNINGHAM PAULINE BOOKS $5.99 EACH Meet Noah, Hannah, and Caleb, three rather ordinary siblings who travel back to the time of Jesus and are ind for extraordinary adventure. These three books...
March 2014 The human brain works better when we walk. We think more clearly and more creatively. Our memories get better. We learn things more quickly and more completely. Our concentration is stronger. Walking reduces the risk of stroke, heart attack, and other health problems. You may know all this...
March 2014 The word Lent is a reference to the season of spring. When I was a child, every spring my grandmother would open the windows and doors. Fresh air would fill our home, and cleaning would begin. We did a “deep” cleaning that lasted an entire day. Every inch...
I read the sermons of St. Alphonsus Liguori for all the Sundays of the year. Although they placed a fair amount of emphasis on the fearfulness of hell, I liked them. A lot is expected of us, but the reward is very great. I didn’t know that St. Alphonsus expanded the idea of...
March 2014 "Jesus didn’t just sit on a mountainside telling nice stories". A popular Christian blogger once wrote that we need one thing and one thing only: Jesus. At first blush, the catch phrase “just Jesus” makes a lot of sense. Christianity is, after all, a lifelong pursuit of...
March 2014 "The willingness to fall and the ability to fall ‘just right’ are invaluable". You probably don’t remember your first steps. It’s part of the collage of “firsts” that moms and dads want to record and remember forever. We struggle to stand, wobble, tumble, and then start again—and...
March 2014 The power of an icon lies in the sacred presence it invites us into as we pray and read the image before us. (Iconographers use the word written instead of painted because icons are considered another way of writing the gospel message. Therefore, instead of simply looking at...
March 2014 The story is often told of a father and daughter who were part of a traveling circus in Poland during World War II. During their act, the teenage daughter would jump from a high wire—without a net—and her father would catch her. One morning the father had gone...
March 2014 "Christianity isn’t just a theory people speak and write about; it’s a way of life". For centuries, Christians have walked ancient pilgrimage routes to the sacred sites of Christendom. It’s not surprising that the most popular has always been the Holy Land, where pilgrims can walk in the...
I recently gave a talk titled “Celebrating Diversity in Unity” at St. Patrick Parish in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The topic was germane because of growing tensions among parishoners over the changing face of the parish. Like many Catholic parishes in the United States, St. Patrick’s is ethnically, culturally, and linguistically...
Rev. Brian Grogan’s article, “Welcoming God in Death” (November 2013), was one of the most beautiful and inspiring pieces I’ve ever read. A real masterpiece—may God bless him for this treasure!—A. Schraff, CA I read with interest and nostalgia the article “Pilgrimage: The Journey Home” by Rev. William Bueche, CSsR...
Young in the Spirit Spiritual Strengthening for Seniors and Caregivers Mary K. Doyle 3E Press $10.95 We’re getting older by the minute, individually and globally. More people are living far into their senior years. Scientific and technological advances offer significant resources and assistance, but getting to a ripe old age...
The February 2014 issue of Liguorian focuses on spiritual nourishment. Often we feel as if we simply don’t have the time to nourish ourselves spiritually. But there is a way: In Moments With God, Jacquelyn Graham suggests we turn waiting into praying: “Sometimes waiting is a mere annoyance, and sometimes...
February 2014 In her autobiography, The Long Loneliness (HarperOne, 2009), Dorothy Day shares her experience with prayer. She was a single mother living on her own and lacking money, with no clue as to what to do with her life. She went to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception...
February 2014 Iconographers painting the face of Our Mother of Perpetual Help use a fourth-century style to describe what our Blessed Mother looks like. This description circulated throughout the churches of Syria and Greece, where early iconography developed. This distinct form is taken from ancient fragments of a manuscript attributed...
February 2014 "Knowledge of Jesus is not the same as belief in him or love of him." While we lament the closure or consolidation of many parochial schools over the past twenty-five years, we can also celebrate that another area of Catholic education, faith formation, has come into its own....
February 2014 "Modern life imposes a brutal set of expectations." A few years ago, a poem made the rounds of the music ministry community. In essence, it said that to be a minister is to give even when it hurts, when you yourself are in need, and perhaps even when...
February 2014 We’re all aware of the need to nourish our bodies. The right nourishment comes from eating the right foods in the right quantities at the right times. For example, a person can eat an entire chocolate cake right before he goes to bed. It may satisfy his hunger,...
February 2014 In my ideal life, I rise early, reflect quietly, exercise hard, and then eat a decent breakfast with plenty of coffee. But real-world demands like getting kids to school on time, preparing for a meeting, or ironing a shirt often steamroll my hopes for reflection and exercise. I...