I have a friend, a powerful, brilliant man who has accomplished far more than I. He has been in higher places and shaken more important hands. He belongs to the best clubs, dines in the best restaurants, attracts the most beautiful women. But there is another difference between us. My friend was raised in the Catholic Church and has fallen away from it, while I was raised apart from it and have been, by some unaccountable mystery, called to it.... Read more

A guest post arrives today from Renetta Burlage, an author and publisher from Iowa. Renetta’s lovely book of family history, Bread on the Table, tells the story of her grandmother. Here she tells of a different, longer story: the two thousand years of Catholic history that inspire her and explain in part why she is a Catholic.  We can all trace our ancestry back to some point in our family tree, giving us an idea of who we are today... Read more

As Elizabeth wrote beautifully yesterday, it is amazing how often the liturgy speaks directly to the questions of our hearts. As I entered St. Mary’s this morning, I was reminded that it was two years ago today that I began attending daily mass, on my road to being received into the Church. The next thought was, When did I start taking this for granted? As I came in, the lights were on in the nave, because it was five minutes... Read more

In honor of our 25th wedding anniversary today and especially in honor of Katie, the only person I know who would gladly swim off one of the Aran Islands in March and without whose courage and goodness (who knows?) I might not have had what it takes to stick with a marriage, even to such an exceptional person, for 25 years, or long enough to become a Catholic who, now bolstered by faith, upholds and defends the inviolability of marriage... Read more

As I’ve written previously, Saturday morning men’s group can be a trial, especially when we argue dogma. But this week, Jonathan, the smartest, best-read person in the group, talked about Catholic hymnody, and I got answers to some questions—like why our hymnals are not written in four-part harmony and why Catholics don’t end hymns with “Amen.” These questions have plagued me since becoming a Catholic because if there’s one thing I remember from Episcopal church-going circa age 13, it’s singing... Read more

On the last page of his memoir, my father wrote, “There have been times in my life when I wondered whether I couldn’t make a good monk.” An athlete, a war veteran, a businessman, a sociable person, Dad didn’t figure for a contemplative. But I understand. I thought I could have been a monk too, at least until I read An Infinity of Little Hours. I felt the tug of monasticism well before my conversion in 2008, though my marriage... Read more

Reading the Office this morning, I was reminded of a formative influence in my life: In early boyhood, I lived in a neighborhood where the other boys were all older than me. I grew up wanting to be just like them, good, bad, or indifferent. I thought of this today while reading Psalm 73. Like others, this psalm contrasts the temptation of envying the wicked with the benefits of listening to God. It begins: How good God is to Israel,to... Read more

Watching the Red Sox try to hang on in their series against the Angels, I come up against a Blackberry ad using “All You Need is Love” as theme music. Love? I wonder. No, not all you need. But “My Generation,” same as The Who’s, has been humming songs like this since the 1960s. They tell us, and we believe, don’t we, that we need nothing but someone to love us, or, same difference, “Somebody to Love,” the first big... Read more

“What’s Haggai to me, or me to Haggai?” or so I thought until this morning, when I read the beginning of the Book of the Prophet Haggai in the day’s Office. Haggai is a “minor prophet,” after all. As a convert coming late to the game, I don’t have time for “minor” prophets. Do I? Then Haggai described exactly what I felt in the years before I was received into the Church: Now thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your... Read more

Joan of Arc dwelt in obscurity in a tiny French village for her first 17 years before going out in a blaze of glory, literally. I have a feeling that my weekly posts on her modern-day successor, “Joan of Arcadia,” are following the same pattern. Based on comments and other available metrics, my enthusiasm for this teen melodrama canceled by CBS four years ago is not widely shared. But just wait! By the time I’m done (at least twenty Fridays... Read more