If you played football in school, you might remember a little drill call “the gauntlet.” The team lines up in two rows facing each other, trying to smack the ball out of the hands of whoever runs between them. Awaiting …
Category: Inspiration
The ‘Midnight’ Mass: Christ Was Born to Save
“No, you can’t eat that candy cane. Hop in the van. It’s time for Christmas!” My wife and I load our three excited young children in the van and drive out for a brisk sparkle tour before Midnight Mass. It …
For a Darkening 21st-Century Church, the Light Is Tradition
It never ceases to amaze me just how dark the world becomes in the month of December, as we approach the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. I wake up in darkness, thinking it’s the middle of the …
‘Take Me to the Pigs’: Finding Hope in Dark Times
She looked up at me. Messy pigtails, marvelously intelligent brown eyes, a precocious wisp of a petite three-year-old: my boyfriend’s niece. Surrounded as I was by games and chatter, everyone thronging together for a day of fun on a Catholic …
Finding My Father
Some of my fondest childhood memories are of sitting in the back of my father’s car, listening to the music he loves. He would pick me up from daycare in the late afternoon, and I would close my eyes and …
The Laity Action Plan for Our Dark Times
The pope has no answers for us. Do we really need them at this point? The bishops he has promoted defend him and continually deflect public attention away from him and his camp. And what do we lay faithful do? …
Reminder for Suffering Catholics: Satan Plays the Long Game
Satan plays a long game. We know from the Gospel of Luke that Satan intended to sift like wheat Peter and the apostles. Writing recently in National Review, Fr. Benedict Kiely has called the Church’s present trial the “summer of …
Richard the First and How to Become Lionhearted
Looking back to the Middle Ages may not always be a popular thing to do in the Church today, as some aspects of our past have become contentious over the centuries. Few aspects of the history of the Church are …
On Protestantism and a Life Devoid of Miracles
The spiritual world has perplexed people from the beginning. The Protestant communities I grew up in were completely lacking in spiritual depth and understanding. They had a knowledge problem: they “knew” without understanding. Angelology and demonology were never spoken of. …
Joy, Peace, and Patience: Keeping Our Catholic Cool in Tough Times
During His sublime discourse to the apostles on the eve of His Passion, Our Lord explained the nature of our relationship to Him in the spiritual life as follows: I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman. …