—Feast of St. Gildas the Wise Back when I was really young, and when I knew everything, I was stationed in Cairo, Egypt. I was one of the Marine Security Guards at the U.S. Embassy there, back in the mid 1980’s. The War on Terror had begun, for me anyway, when the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was blown up. (more…) Read more

—Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas  I woke up on the late side this morning and so I decided to grab my breakfast in the high school cafeteria during first period. As I waited my turn, an older woman slowly walked back and forth behind the counter, serving hungry teenagers, answering their questions, pouring their coffee. She was woefully outnumbered and it was clear the cafeteria was understaffed.Finally, my turn came, just as two more cafeteria workers joined her behind the... Read more

-Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas  Word has come to me that Eric Sammons has re-published his list of the “Top 200” Catholic Blogs, based on the number of people who subscribe to a blog via the Google Reader. I guess that means through RSS feeds? Anyway, according to Eric’s methodology, YIMCatholic landed in the 36th spot on his list.So we are blushing now and humbly say “Thank You” to all of our readers! All 523 who subscribe through the Google... Read more

Call it the email read ’round the world. In November, a friend of a friend, Maria Teresa Landi, came up with an extraordinary idea: she e-mailed her friends, proposing they send letters of encouragement to the Christians of Iraq, who are being tortured and persecuted and murdered for their faith. Tere, who is active in the Communion and Liberation movement, asked that her idea be distributed as widely as possible. We posted her proposal, which was picked up by our... Read more

—Feast of Sts. Timothy and Titus You may have missed this piece in the Washington Post yesterday about the historian accused of altering a document signed by President Abraham Lincoln. I work in an archive and I know that among historians and archivists, altering historic documents is just plain wrong. After all, The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest... Read more

-Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul Chapter I: Mission Impossible? Not When It’s a Mission from God What possesses a man to embark, in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, on an unplanned trip that will take 36 hours, 1000 miles of driving, and absolutely no idea how he will pull it all off? Faith and prayer is what I chock it up to. That, and having a wonderful wife. Oh, and did I mention I took my entire... Read more

—Feast of St. Francis de Sales  So my family and I are up in the Nation’s Capitol. Our Lord said, Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me. It doesn’t get much more “least” than unborn babies. So after Mass yesterday, I pulled a Crazy Ivan on my wife and kids and told them we’re heading to Washington D.C. for the March for Life. The... Read more

Guest Post by Dee Sparacio Dee lives New Jersey, where she blogs about how she survived ovarian cancer. Here, she shares how her faith was instrumental in her victory. I have written about my experience as an ovarian cancer survivor for over three years now. I’ve shared stories about my CT and PET scans, the anxiety of waiting for CA-125 results, the options I had when I recurred, the sadness I felt when friends lost their battle and the decisions... Read more