The trampoline, that upset them. We bought one of the big round ones for our eldest’s sixteenth birthday a few years ago, and parents we knew (mothers more than fathers) were appalled that we’d bought such a dangerous thing and horrified that our children were allowed to jump on it when we were not there. Fortunately, no one ever asked how many children we let on the trampoline at one time, since sometimes all four jumped on it at once… . Continue Reading»
As you may be aware, several Christian churches in Kirkuk, Mosul, Basra, and Baghdad, as well as throughout the rest of Iraq, cancelled their festivities this past Christmas. Ever since the massacre of worshippers in Baghdads Church of Our Lady of Salvation last November … Continue Reading»
Quick raise your hand if you think you know something about exorcisms. Now put down your hand if what you have learned has mostly come from Hollywood and the movies. Im guessing there are not many hands left up out there… . Continue Reading»
Its been a ride that has not reached a destination. Those people who say its the journey, not the destination, do not know what they are talking about. My mother is descending”has descended”into dementia. My wife and I have noticed little markers along the way over the last year. … Continue Reading»
Since the so-called hermeneutic turn, initiated and sustained by that Teutonic proclivity for ratiocination, were told that everything”on the page and off the page”is a text, and therefore its interpretation all the way down. … Continue Reading»
Not every person is a human being, but is every human being a person? Examples abound of non-human persons: Christians believe that the Godhead consists of three Persons of one substance; U.S. Supreme Court justices have ruled that corporations are artificial persons; fans of Star Trek argue that androids like Data and aliens like Spock are all (fictional) persons; and the Spanish Parliament even ruled that great apes are legal persons. … Continue Reading»
The otherwise inexplicable cure of a French nun suffering from Parkinsons disease was accepted in early January by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and Pope Benedict XVI as the confirming miracle that clears the way for the beatification of Pope John Paul II on May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday… . Continue Reading»
He has authored over a dozen books, written a syndicated newspaper column and countless essays and articles covering a broad range of subjects—sports, politics, mobsters, union thugs, cultural touchstones, booze, and blades of grass—all of it written in a smart, literate voice of the casual sophisticate who takes his subject, but not himself, seriously. Continue Reading »
Do you really think anti-apologism is a problem? wrote my friend Mark Barrett in response to last weeks column, The Reasons the Heart Wants, which tried to defend the craft of expositing the Faith against the claim thats its pointless if not counter-productive. He was thinking of Catholics, while I had been thinking more of hip, postmodern Evangelicals … Continue Reading»
Bright young ladies, both excellent students at their respective excellent schools, my seventh grade catechism students pay attention, ask good questions, and remember interesting little facts like Hildegard of Bingen was a twelfth century mystic and writer. But even I was surprised when they told me they completely understand the Incarnation… . Continue Reading»