Let me squeeze this in right before Good Friday. Something I learned in the Marine Corps besides leadership is a little trait called “followership.” This should be self-explanatory, but often times everyone wants to lead and nobody wants to follow.Listen to Bono and the boys and remember that even leaders must follow. Choose your leader wisely. Choose to follow Christ. Amazing grace will follow you for all the days of your life. Update: Why the Best Leaders are Great Followers.... Read more

Friday morning, my two sons and I will travel from New Jersey  to Brooklyn’s Cathedral Basilica of Saint James by train and by subway to participate in what promises to be a beautiful event. Thousands of believers are expected to walk in silence from Brooklyn, cross the Brooklyn Bridge, and into Lower Manhattan to commemorate the death of our Lord. If you live in the New York metropolitan area, I hope you will join us. I also am wondering: What special... Read more

Guest Post by John Eklund (an excerpt from his novel) One day a humble servant of the Lord lost a very dear friend to the scourge cancer. The humble servant felt great sorrow and prayed that he would someday see his friend again. After much time in prayer, the humble servant was confronted by a demon. The demon said to him, “Why do you waste your time in prayer? There is no proof that God exists.” The humble servant answered him,... Read more

Early this year a reader sent me a copy of his novel, “The Third Testament,” and asked me to review it. I devoured the book in a matter of days and want to strongly recommend it to our readers. John Eklund’s tale is about a widower named Fred Smith, a professor at a small Catholic college who dreams that God has asked him to record the next testament of the Bible. The novel recounts his research on Church history since... Read more

-Feast of St. Marian This morning it is raining in my neck of the woods. It was accompanied by thunder and lightning, and yet it was a gentle and warm rain. As I was pulling into the parking garage, I noticed the trolley bus was pulling up to the stop outside. Good, I thought. I won’t have to walk in the rain. But as it turns out, this particular bus driver is one of the impatient ones. As I was... Read more

Today while I was having my nails done, I struck up a conversation with the shop owner, who was sitting beside me. Another customer and I commented on the beautifully ornate palm weaving that hung from the shop wall; turns out a Catholic customer from the Dominican Republic had given it to her after Palm Sunday. Then, as the conversation proceeded, I discovered the Korean-born shop owner is Catholic and that she and I are parishioners at the same church.... Read more

—Feast of Palm Sunday  Before I was a Catholic, I never really gave a lot of thought to Palm Sunday. This morning we awoke to glorious sunshine, with nary a cloud in the sky. The previous few days had been cloudy, cool, and wet. But a day like today is how I always picture Palm Sunday in my mind’s eye.It is the height of paradox that on this day of glory for Our Lord, a mere five days later he... Read more

—Feast of St. Bernadette Soubirous  I may be a new Catholic (relatively speaking, RCIA Class of 2008) but I’ve been around the block a few times. I like to think that I know the difference between noise and signal. I’ve mentioned before why I’m not a disciple of this priest, or that priest, but of Christ. Remember the counsel of the Holy Spirit through St. Paul? Brothers, I could not talk to you as spiritual people, but as fleshly people,... Read more