It’s back to school time, which often means it is also back to a frenetic pace of extra-curricular activities. We want our children to be well-rounded and well-educated and so we sign them up for all sorts of things: sports, dance, scouts, library programs, etc. There isn’t anything wrong with any of those things, but […]
Who will Survive? One cricket sounding as the storm approaches The great trees unaware, How many will be down, which rotting branches Will be broken or be spared? All the beetles hiding underneath the bark And under every leaf Will not be shaken in the flashing of the dark Or come to grief But all […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Sirach 27:30–28:7; Psalm 103:1-4,9-12; Romans 14:7-9; Matthew 18:21-35) Forgiving One Another from the Heart “Not seven times but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22). It’s been ten years since two jetliners crashed into theTwinTowersinManhattan, but Paul Fox can still see the flames and, in them, the faces of […]
Two books, one containing an explicit depiction of statutory lesbian rape, and the other a homosexual orgy, have been ousted from a local high school by outraged New Jersey parents. The texts, Norwegian Wood and Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines, originally appeared on the summer reading list for both middle school and high school students […]
As you know, East Africa is in the grip of a horrible drought. We have all seen images of the hungry and malnourished arriving in refugee camps, many after walking for weeks or months, surviving not only the bleak landscape but also bandits and even wild animals. The perseverance of these people, of mothers sacrificing […]
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world […]
The UN’s new fertility forecasts could have significant implications for predicting which nations will wield global power in the 21stcentury, especially predictions about the coming power shift in Asia where Indians will outnumber Chinese by 2025. For years UN population experts have said that low fertility and aging societies like China and Europe will have […]
They say there are only two sure things in life: death and taxes. Thanks to unbelievable gains in medical technology in recent years however, most Americans are now able to delay the former inevitability for decades longer than their ancestors. Because of this, at a time when America’s real estate industry is struggling, there’s one […]
I recently renewed a friendship with a long-lost high school friend on Facebook and was surprised by her rather liberal views on politics and religion. After all, we had both attended a Catholic high school, although she is Episcopalian. At first, I thought that perhaps I should move on as our world views were so […]
The Carthusians To be “Hanged in their habits” What a glorious thing, For their silence screamed, “Christ is the King!” And like the Innocents So Holy, that died, With sword-cut bodies Their mothers cried And wept like mothers Do today, Who send their sons Into the fray Like Innocent Carthusians, With staff and rod, Who […]
Ten years ago this month, after a band of radical Islamists crashed airplanes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, religion surged to the forefront of our national conversation. The twisted, hateful beliefs of the terrorists came into sharp focus, of course. But so did the generous, life-affirming faith of their victims […]
The isolated ruling class in charge of a bloated government increasingly turns its back on the millennial religious traditions that had once made their nation great. Under the prods of a small cadre of activists, they strip the public square of the symbols of that old time religion. All that their ancestors revered they now […]
Political discourse and news media have been consumed of late by talk of debt, spending, and recession, but meanwhile the educational freedom movement has been making real progress. State legislatures across the country are giving a green light to vouchers and tax incentives that will in the future pay impressive dividends in the form of […]
In Batman, the Joker rhetorically asks a young Bruce Wayne: “Tell me, kid — you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight?” Well, I have. Not by the pale moonlight, but in a brightly lit Four Points Sheraton in Baltimore, Md. On Wednesday, Aug. 17, I — along with the venerable child advocate […]
Such Power Suddenly, over night, Green boughs and yellow The coming of a fragile might And glory to bestow That will not be withdrawn Between the night and dawn But if there ever were Displeasure such as this: No flowering occur It would not be of weakness But of a strength of will Imperceptible Then […]
Not too long ago I came across a news piece on the mission of Barbara Harris, a woman who started a group called Project Prevention which offers $300 cash to drug addicts if they agree to get on “long term” birth control. According to their most recent statistics, they have paid 3,848 addicts, with tubal […]
In recent weeks, we have been put on notice repeatedly: Absent a fundamental course correction, America will go the way of Europe and others before it, succumbing to an insidious totalitarian doctrine known as shariah whose purpose, in the words of its prime practitioners — the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) — is to “destroy Western civilization from within.” […]
Recently, I noticed some social networking posts by a Catholic woman friend about her enjoyment of FOX’s show, “Glee.” This is a woman I respect so I assumed that “Glee” was a wholesome show that any Catholic woman could watch without worry to her conscience. I was enthusiastic in hope that, finally, prime time television […]
I used to think that God’s law was like those dumb rules we had to put up with in grammar school, like “Thou shalt not chew gum in class.” They are arbitrary laws that bureaucrats came up with to keep them happy and the rest of us miserable. The goal of students is to break […]
What Angels See I turn the knob slowly Till it will turn no more And gently push the door to your room Soft footed, I step long, Over the board that sounds, To your bed I stand and gaze on your sleeping form To see what it is Those angels see When they guard your […]
The 5th Quarter is a captivating true story of perseverance and as such it is a story for us all. It is a riveting story for anyone who has ever suffered through personal tragedy from which one thought there was no way to recover. It is an emotional story for any parent who has ever […]
The Epistle of Saint Jude is the final letter in the New Testament before the Apocalypse and one of the shortest books in the Bible. Only once does a selection from Jude appear in the lectionary, on the eight Saturday of Ordinary Time in Year II but the brevity and obscurity of the letter is […]
Dear Brothers and Sisters, In every age, men and women who have consecrated their lives to God in prayer – like monks and nuns – have founded their communities in particularly beautiful places: in the countryside, on hilltops, in mountain valleys, on the shores of lakes or of the sea and even on small islands. […]
If you missed Part One of this interview with the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, you can find it here . In Part Two, the Canons talk about their return to the U.S. and how you can support their mission. Q: Did you think you’d ever come back to serve a parish in the U.S? […]
