Time is passing, but that stack of newspapers in the corner is growing. Time is passing, but those images of passenger jets, flaming skies and twisted steel are still buried over there under the new layers of rubber-suited health warriors fighting a tide of sickening white powder. Time is passing, but preachers know people are still asking: Where was God? They can see people flinch when they hear a Psalm that says: “He who dwells in the secret place of... Read more

When American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon, a jet-fuel fireball claimed most of its victims before they could even dive under their desks. But as rescue crews worked through the charred halls, word spread of an amazing sign of hope. On the second floor — steps from where the plane sliced away the building — stood a stool holding a large, open book that had not been burned. Eyewitnesses reportedly said it was a Bible and the news... Read more

Surely it was the strangest question a journalist asked on the day the world changed. The mid-day mass at her New York City parish drew a larger crowd than usual, Peggy Noonan reported in the Wall Street Journal, and the people on the kneelers looked “stricken.” As the rite ended, the columnist and speechwriter sought out a neighbor. Her family was OK. “Did a rat stand on its hind legs this morning?”, asked Noonan. The Park Avenue woman said “no.”... Read more

The first time Father John Romas approached ground zero it was hard to find the site of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Rescue workers in the World Trade Center ruins then watched in silence as the man in black robes fell to his knees and began weeping. “My church was gone. There was no church at all — no doors, no walls, no windows,” said the priest, trying to express himself in English. “I cried and cried. Then I looked... Read more

Terry Anderson thought he had conquered his anger at the terrorists who locked him away for 2,545 days. The Associated Press veteran had traveled back to Lebanon to make a documentary. He met with officials of Hezbollah. It was hard, but he did it. Then an image on his giant-screen television brought it all back. Anderson was watching a routine news interview with a politician in Beirut, when he recognized his voice. This was the man the hostages called “the... Read more

Just after dawn, Father Seamus Murtagh got up to write his Sunday meditation. The appointed text was the parable of the prodigal son in the Gospel of St. Luke, with its twin themes of repentance and forgiveness. He decided his flock at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in West Palm Beach, Fla., would hear about forgiveness. He wrote a simple title on his work — “Father, Forgive Them.” It was Tuesday morning. Soon the events crashed into his prayers. “As I... Read more

Things can get pretty tense when parents and teen-agers talk about premarital sex. No matter how bad it gets, some questions must be asked. But these days it isn’t enough for adults to grill children. Something a bit more risky and unnerving needs to happen first, according to philosopher J. Budziszewski. Children may need to ask their parents some questions. Here’s one: “Mom, did you shack up with dad or anybody else before you got married?” Or how about this... Read more

The girls thought they were “hooking up” with some fraternity brothers. But the guys called it “Showtime at the Apollo.” The game went like this, said one of Vigen Guroian’s students, describing in a class assignment what went on at her boyfriend’s fraternity at another college. A boy would bring a girl home, then leave the curtain parted on the glass door onto the dual-access balcony. Then his fraternity brothers in the next room could sit outside and watch. “Now... Read more

Once there was a man who lived in a lighthouse on the foggy Atlantic. This is the start of an old sermon illustration, yet one that is relevant after the 2000 White House race and the church-state seminar that surrounded the stem-cell research compromise. As the story goes, this lighthouse had a gun that sounded a warning every hour. The keeper tended the beacon and kept enough shells in the gun so it could keep firing. After decades, he could... Read more

After another day of watching Pope John Paul II shake Communist Poland, American political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain and her hosts gathered at a television to see how the state’s reporters would handle this spiritual drama. Polish viewers, in 1983, did not see and hear millions of people chanting, “We forgive you” to their oppressors or the Polish pope repeatedly voicing the importance of solidarity — “So-li-dar-nosc!” — between God and his people. The TV news did not show his... Read more