“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here.” –President Abraham Lincoln from the Gettysburg Address. This is the attitude everyone should hold if asked to give a speech at the end of a commencement. When someone says something that is memorable, skads of internet ink gets spilt taking the offending person to the woodshed. I won’t be doing that here, it’s been overdone. What I will do, is counsel aspiring graduation speakers. Given that I have... Read more
I love summer. It’s my favorite season, all of it. Every year we make a list and yes, a lot of it is tradition and repetitive, berry picking, ice cream trucks, going to the pool, reading a book, going to a drive in, hiking, fireworks, but part of the joy is thinking in advance about all the fun we will have. So I present on this Memorial Day Weekend, my summer list. It’s not all the usual stuff, but there... Read more
Quick! This is a test. Without googling, consulting your 8th grader preparing for Confirmation or opening the Catechism, name the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. We’re celebrating the feast of Pentecost this Sunday, and aught to know the gifts the third person of the Trinity brings to each of us when we experience our own sacrament of Pentecost. Write down what you remember old school, with a pencil. Tactile memory helps. It’s probably how you learned it the first... Read more
For those who are not dialed into the Catholic world, today is the 107th anniversary of the first time the Blessed Mother appeared to the three children in Fatima. The three children were Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto. Happy feast of the Luminous Mysteries and Our Lady of Fatima. I knew the prayer of Fatima and the Luminous mysteries and had some understanding but never ventured to do a deeper dive into the account of Mary’s visitations with... Read more
Congratulations! You’re confirmed. You’re considered an adult in the Catholic Church now. Feel on fire with the Holy Spirit and certain about the gifts entrusted to you to help build the kingdom of God? Ready to begin fulfilling God’s will in your life and know exactly how that’s to take place? No? For many, the day after Confirmation signals the long walk into a spiritual wasteland. The pews remain empty, and the hearts stop searching or coming to mass until... Read more
I need to write. Writers do that, every day. I’ve been managing as many words as I do steps as of late. It’s a red letter day when I break six thousand with the walking, and likewise three hundred fifty with the writing. Not sure why putting thoughts down on the page has become harder than exercise. Blaming illness doesn’t work, because this started before I got sick. It can’t be because I’m too busy because I’ve always been too... Read more
I had a beautiful piece about how important each of us is to the whole universe, and most especially to the creator of the universe. The piece had pictures and I hit publish and the internet vaporized my work. Now, trying to rewrite the piece, I find the threads are hard to grasp, though I know the fundamental reality I wanted to share. We are created in God’s image, male and female. God imagined us into being, and each... Read more
After Easter, the apostles sat around in the upper room knowing they ought to be about doing something, but unsure as to what. The same holds true for me as I recover from what has been a two week long bout of Covid, complete with hospitalization and trying to get to three thousand steps on my fitbit. I have not made it yet. There is so much to life, to being, to doing and yet, the accomplishment of the day... Read more
Happy Easter! He is risen! Now what? Easter is fifty days. However, unlike Lent (40 days) and Advent (4 Weeks) and Christmas (12 days), we don’t have a calendar or candles or scheduled rituals other than mass to really mark the reality of these sacred days. There are devotions and traditions but not specific elements that uniquely celebrate this time of joy as we do for Christmas (gifts, feasts, songs), and it makes this time rather parallel to the time... Read more
Now this post would have been really timely to present back in 2020 when everyone was homebound, but I’m homebound now so, I’m offering these ideas to help you if you need it with your observance of Holy Week. I have Covid so I’m stuck observing from my bed. 1) Watch the Holy Thursday mass. I’ve followed the Daily TV mass for most of Lent, so I turned to them. Bonus if you follow along with your Magnificat if... Read more
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