The drumbeat during the run up to the largest lottery prize ever has been very interesting to me. The media are having a ball concentrating everyone’s attention on the potential for winning big (as a few good people just did). TV interviews...
Blessed with a hearty appetite and as a man of “generous girth,” I can tell you that I have never been truly hungry. I grew up in a family of fairly portly folks who saw food as a joy in...
Whenever I have gotten away from the perpetual glow of city lights, what has struck me most is the richness of the night sky. Because I see the display so seldom, it is almost impossible for me to stop craning...
ore than half my adult life was spent in the Los Angeles area. Visitors to the City of the Angels love to stroll the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Embedded in the sidewalk are brass-bordered cement stars bearing the names of...
ne of my favorite features of Advent occurs from the 17th to the 23rd of December. Tucked away in the liturgy for those days are seven gems known as the O Antiphons. The full versions of these antiphons are prayed...
This is quite a week for the Church! Pope Francis has opened the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica to proclaim the start of the Year of Mercy. He and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI walked through the doors and now the...
The prologue to St. John’s gospel introduces God’s Son as the Word. This life-giving Word—spoken down through the ages—became flesh and lived in our midst. For all of Christian history, the Word is intimately connected with all of human life....
In the newspaper comic strip “Family Circus,” there is a ghostly character that often appears when one or more of the kids have created a mess or broken a window or provided some other mayhem. Printed on the character’s chest are the words...
The events of the past two weeks have touched me to the core. Thinking about the vicious attacks in Paris still makes me shudder. The posturing of the extremists linked to the television images of violence, injury, death, and destruction can't help but...
