Our daughter’s first word was “Squirrel!” She was excited by the furry critters that romped outside the living room window—so excited, in fact, that we bought her a stuffed squirrel in lieu of a teddy bear on her first Christmas. Our son’s first word (after “Mama” and “Dada”, of course) was “Airplane”.  Riding to Grandma and Grandpa’s house safely buckled in the infant seat, he sat too low to see the forward lunge of commuters in Fords and Chevys, the... Read more
I am so proud to call this guy my friend. Yesterday in Greenville, South Carolina, Father Dwight Longenecker and I got together for food and fellowship. We chatted: about writing, about our respective blogs, about Catholicism, and about you, the reader. This photo was taken in his office. I’ve been reading the works of Fr. Dwight Longenecker since the publication of More Christianity: Finding the Fullness of the Faith, circa 2002. That book took C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity to the... Read more
Catholics have long been staunch defenders of God-given religious liberty. Today, such liberty is threatened in our country by government intrusion.  Both the federal and state governments have made attempts to inhibit – and even to make illegal – efforts by Catholics and Catholic institutions to operate according to their faith. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for a second consecutive year has called on Catholics across the United States to observe a Fortnight for Religious Freedom from June 21 until July... Read more
St. Romuald, whose feast we celebrate today, died on June 19, 1027.  Monastic life in the eleventh century was difficult—but not difficult enough for Romuald. As a young man, he entered Sant’Apollinare in Classe, a traditional Benedictine community in Italy. Then, as now, the Church faced corruption within its ranks—with some monks engaged in simony (charging for sacraments or for offices within the Church) and concubinage (an ongoing immoral relationship with a woman). In Romuald’s monastery, an attempt was made... Read more
The second miracle has been approved, and Blessed John Paul II is now one step closer to canonization. In the Catholic Church, “canonization” is the process of formally declaring a person of heroic virtue to be a saint. Catholics believe that saints are already in heaven; and canonized saints can be venerated (regarded with reverential respect), and their lives held up to Christians here on earth as examples to be imitated. Two documented miracles are required before a formal declaration... Read more
Just two days after Archbishop Gerhard Müller, Vatican Prefect, speaking in Glasgow, Scotland, touted Catholic education as “a critical component of the Church”, President Barack Obama stood before a crowd of 2,000 young people this morning and called for an end to Catholic education in Northern Ireland. “If towns remain divided,” said the U.S. President, “if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed... Read more
A five-year-old girl in Topeka, Kansas, has taken on the cause of world peace; and since Friday, June 14, she’s raised more than $16,000 for her cause. Jayden Sink sells lemonade across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church, the controversial church which has scorned homosexuality by picketing soldiers’ funerals, celebrating massacres like September 11 and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and protesting in front of the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Jayden was inspired to open the lemonade stand after... Read more
Charleston, South Carolina is a traveler’s delight, a swath of historical homes and fragrant gardens along the eastern seaboard.  Its tree-lined streets feature homes in the Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival and Italianate style alongside Victorian mansions and Adamesque estates. Visiting our son this week in South Carolina, my husband and I spent a sun-splashed Sunday afternoon walking and driving through Charleston’s lower peninsula. There, Spanish moss drips from live oaks and brightly-colored stucco covers the Georgian townhomes along Rainbow Row.... Read more
You know, boys and girls, when villains and bad guys enter schools (like Sandy Hook Elementary School) and movie theatres (like the Aurora Century 16) and shoot people dead, that’s a really bad thing. We really feel sad when that happens, and we want to do something to make sure it never happens again.  We talk about it a lot on television and radio.  We lash out. We pass laws. Sometimes in our haste to solve the problem, we get... Read more
When I was young—very young, like three or four years old—I wondered why men could remove their shirts in public, but women could not. In my youthful logic, I saw the seeming inequity as unfair to women, who might get hot and sweaty on a summer day. But as I grew toward adulthood, it became clear that there was a difference: That women’s breasts are inherently sexual—linked, as they are, to physical arousal and, coincidentally, to sustaining new life. For... Read more
Seasons of Grace
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