Photo from Captured and Exposed Louis Pranzini and the Laborers Today, October 1st, is the feast day of The Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux, one of only thirty-six saints to be declared a Doctor of the Church. In his twenty-six year pontificate, Pope John Paul ll canonized around 482 saints–only one of whom he […]
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An unanticipated consequence of my new website was the loss of three years of articles. I enjoyed retrieving these older articles, especially those from the beginning of the pandemic of fear. Although I wrote this in April of 2020, I’m republishing it today. While reading this piece again, I was stunned by how quickly I’ve
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Is it News or Gossip? It shouldn’t be a difficult distinction. But it is, isn’t it? Especially if we come across an article confirming our prejudice about a person or institution. And then it starts to roll, the judgment, the outrage. I do precisely what I know not to do–confound the sin by talking to
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The True Light Illuminating Death: Jesus On June 19th of this year, Pope Francis celebrated Blaise Pascal’s 400th birthday with an Apostolic letter that I found riveting. One that recalled memories from my undergraduate college days, memories that illuminate God’s direction and love during the years I bought into the lies of atheism. But even
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Lessons in stupidity from King Herod Unfortunately, some of us just get old without losing the stupidity of youth. Like lessons in stupidity from King Herod. Each August 29th, the Christian liturgy memorializes the beheading of John the Baptist. It’s one of the few Gospel readings that don’t include Jesus– and contains the perfect recipe
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Love: how extrordinarily wrong we are about it. A few years ago, I wrote a piece that recalled an event not long after I converted to Catholic Christianity from decades of mostly atheism. Alone in the church after Mass I sat transfixed by the crucifix. Mesmerized by this ginormous quintessence of agony stretched over the
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Even The Dogs: The Canaanite Woman and Us Initially, perhaps for some, each time we read this Gospel passage, we think that Jesus is being crass, even cruel. But that’s because all too readily, we impose our own motives on Christ. And yet, it is a curious interaction. So odd that it begs for a
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A declaration of dependence America’s declaration of independence is fundamentally a declaration of dependence on God wrote Archbishop Fulton Sheen over eighty years ago. When we read the five-man committee’s words, we cannot help but be moved by their implicit reason and truth. WHEN in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to
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St. Ignatius and writing: remembering answered prayers Last Monday, July 31st, was the feast day of St. Ignatius. Best known as the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola was a soldier who came to his faith while recovering from wounds he received in battle. Bored, Ignatius resorted to reading the stories of saints because he
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Antisemitism as spiritual evil “Prejudice means racism,” my friend insisted, reacting to my remark that we’re all prejudiced. About something, maybe many things. “No. It doesn’t. Think about the word itself: prejudge. It implies an opinion based not on fact or experience but “prejudgment,” closemindedness. Since her look was skeptical, I’m not sure I ever
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