—Feast of St. Evaristus  A friend of mine, who knows of my affinity for Blaise Pascal, sent me a link to an essay written by Peter Kreeft. It is very well written and from the foreword of Kreeft’s book about Blaise entitled Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s “Pensees.” The essay is quite good, and Kreeft argues that for the modern age, Blaise is one of the best Catholic apologists going. Below is a short chapter, an essay really, on the... Read more

A poem by Matthew Arnold (1822-1888).  Not a Catholic, Arnold hung out with John Keble and others from the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church.  You may recall that many in that movement eventually converted to Catholicism, such as Blessed John Henry Newman and Frederick Faber.  Arnold even heard some of Blessed JHN’s sermons, before JHN swam the Tiber. As for me, I stumbled upon this poem in my favorite book about Ecclesiastes, written by another non-Catholic named Minos Devine.... Read more

It seems like a million years ago, but it was only back in February(!) when I wrote these words, Like the officers I served under in the Marines, some of these priests are going to be exceptional. I have some advice for you. Prepare yourself now for the day they will be re-assigned to another post.Well, that day has come, but it isn’t at my parish. It is right here, in this space. Webster Bull, the founder of the YIMCatholic... Read more

—Feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist Friday evening, the sky was clear and my daughter and I headed over to the university in our town to look at the stars. For her science class, see, extra credit is available and this was one way to take advantage of that opportunity. The sky was clear, the night air was crisp and the moon was waxing just past half. So my daughter and I jumped in the car and headed to college.... Read more

This was originally written last year for the Feast of St. Ignatius. Now is a good time for a reprise of this post. Two years ago I was reading and re-reading a book that brought me to the Catholic Church. As I wrote in my very first post, that book, My Life with the Saints by James Martin, S.J., reminded me of a central insight I first had in the fourth grade: The saints, revered by the Catholic Church and... Read more

Yesterday, the day after his 11th birthday, our youngest son came to me, saying he needed new shoes. Talk about an understatement. (See photo above) I bought him those sneakers last spring. He said he’d be willing to continue to wear his canvas and rubber Chuck Taylor Hi-Tops if I would please just buy him a new pair. He adored those sneakers. They’re marketed as “classic hi-top kicks (that) have remained true to the original Chuck Taylors to give your... Read more