If you have access to the Internet, you likely have read a viral blog post by single mother of four Liza Long titled “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother.” The piece has had millions of hits on the various sites on which it has been published. If you haven’t seen it, check your email. Someone has […]
On Wednesday, on the twelfth day of the twelfth month, in the year 2012, my parish and I celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. As I write, there appears to be no significance to that factoid of the series of the twelves, though it was interesting enough to deserve a mention from the […]
The latest unemployment figures are again depressing, but not for the usual reasons. They provide further confirmation of Barack Obama’s fundamental transformation of America, specifically through his creation of a growing government class. The numbers show a massive increase in government jobs created over the last five months—621,000, to be exact, dwarfing private-sector job growth. […]
3rd Sunday of Advent (Year C) On the third Sunday of Advent, the penitential purple of the season changes to rose and we celebrate “Gaudete” or “Rejoice!” Sunday. “Shout for joy, daughter of Sion” says Zephaniah. “Draw water joyfully from the font of salvation,” says Isaiah. “Rejoice in the Lord always,” says St. Paul. “Do […]
Much has been said lately about how to do evangelization. I’ve contributed a bit to that myself. Now I begin to think that, instead of always stressing niceness, it might be good to give tough religion a try. That idea was inspired by a reading of Eric Metaxas’s biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran theologian […]
On December 9, 1531, a poor and humble man from a remote village, some fourteen miles outside of present-day Mexico City, had a miraculous encounter with a mysterious lady and the Americas would never be the same. That peasant was Juan Diego, and the mysterious lady that he encountered was none other than she whom […]
This just in: Hell freezes over, pigs fly, Jimmy Hoffa rises from the dead, joins labor protests at state capital. I’m just kidding. We all know pigs can’t fly. The fact, however, that the Legislature of my home state of Michigan has just voted to become the nation’s 24th right-to-work state is nothing short of […]
In 1979 I received my First Communion and, as a communion gift, my first Bible, The Illustrated Children’s Bible. I cherished this present and the stories never left my memory, even after I lost the Bible, many years ago. The Word of God is eternal and omnipresent; it remains imprinted on our souls from our […]
Second Sunday of Advent Faith, hope, and love. St. Paul, in I Corinthians 13:13, say these three are the bottom line. They are called the theological virtues, the qualities that make us most like God. We hear plenty about faith and love. But when is the last time you heard a rousing homily on hope? […]
Frankly, I was completely in shock. Not that we didn’t expect it – we’ve been expecting it for some time. And, it wasn’t that we weren’t happy about it, either, because we were and still are. No, I was in shock because this would make me the…you know…the… mother-in-law. I’ve heard about those creatures, the […]
In the words of Billy Joel’s 1979 hit ballad, “Honesty,” “Honesty is such a lonely word; everyone is so untrue.” How much more true do those words ring today, some three decades later? To wit, I’d like to touch on three examples of rank dishonesty: one spiritual, one intellectual, and one liturgical. Spiritual Dishonesty In […]
Wednesday, November 21. I drove eleven hours through the Megalopolis of Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. It was the day before Thanksgiving, the busiest traveling day of the year in the U.S. Was I crazy? Maybe, but a daylong drive through stop-and-go traffic was what I wanted to help prepare for Advent. […]
Before my feet touched the floor on January 1st, 2012, I offered a simple prayer: Please Lord, before the year is over, find me where you want me to be. Up to that point, I had been suffering from a decades-long chronic condition and although I imagined health in my future, that morning I offered every […]
Today, we celebrate a New Year’s Day in the Catholic Church. Not unlike the secular New Year’s Day we celebrate in the secular world, the First Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of the new liturgical year. It also marks our time of longing and anticipation for the coming of the Christ Child on Christmas […]
The weather was still chilly on the May morning when I found myself pacing in a northern-Wisconsin parking lot, trying to find a sweet spot in the gray sky overhead where my cell phone would work. My mother and I were traveling together, taking a break from visiting my grandmother in her Green Bay nursing […]
The cardinal looked grim. “This is the situation now,” he said. “One political party is dangerous and the other is stupid.” Since that was said in a private chat, it wouldn’t be fair for me to name the speaker. But his comment expresses sentiments that probably are widely shared in the American hierarchy today, as […]
Another of the stars of the hit CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men” has imploded, metaphorically speaking, but this time I’m betting the damage to the actor’s career is beyond repair. Recall that in March 2011, Charlie Sheen’s erratic behavior on the set and off finally resulted in his being canned by the producers […]
“Absolute power,” Lord Acton wrote, “corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Good and bad can be a matter of degree, something that can be adjusted like the volume dial on a radio. If power is relative then that it means different things to different people, and its abuse becomes a matter […]
If someone is looking for material for a book with a title like Profiles of an Inhuman Economic System, consider what follows to be a contribution to the cause. It’s about a man I know whom I’ll call Joe. His wife told me his story. Joe is an honest, conscientious guy who, a couple of […]
“Anyone who is so ‘progressive’ as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God” (2 John 9). Saint John the Apostle wrote of progressivism in his second letter 1,900 years ago. He directed his argument to the “lady elect and her children,” that is, to the community of believers who […]
What comes to your mind when you hear the familiar Bible passage from Luke 2:8-10, where the angels appear to the shepherds to proclaim the birth of a savior and His peace? Do you picture cute, little, cherub-faced boys and girls? Do you imagine shepherds that look like those sappy Precious Moments figurines you see […]
In the days following last week’s U.S. presidential election, a staggering amount of analysis has focused on Republican messaging, demographics and core constituencies — so much so that the fundamental point has been missed entirely. If the Second Coming of Obama is evidence of anything, it is the godlessness of our nation, the majority of […]
Mitt Romney lost the presidential race by only two percentage points. If the election had been held just a week earlier, when he was up in the polls, things might have been different. Nonetheless, Mitt Romney lost, and now a bitter debate has ensued over the future of the Republican Party, with liberal Democrats happily […]
It was only 7:15 last Tuesday evening when my daughter, who works in conservative journalism, texted me to say the election was lost. For a painful four hours, I watched the results confirm her early analysis. When it was clear the president would be re-elected and Republican challenger Mitt Romney had lost, I took an […]
