In the novel Love Story, Oliver and Jenny want to marry. But their families don’t want them to marry. They are from “opposite sides of the tracks.” Oliver is rich. Jenny is poor. Both are well educated (he from Harvard; she from Radcliff) but aren’t interested in social status. They only want to start a […]
It has been said that the worst human sinfulness happened that day on Calvary when the creatures attempted to kill the Creator. The very people that God came to save rejected him and nailed him to the cross but in doing so they did not realize that they were rejecting themselves and the own love […]
My favorite food is peanut butter. I eat it every day. I don’t need bread or jelly—I eat it from the jar with a spoon. Every year I think about quitting during Lent but I never do. Like an addict, I cannot think about life without peanut butter but I know life cannot go […]
Rejoice Jerusalem and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in morning and be satisfied at her consoling breast — Isa 66:10-11. “My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers. I am looked down upon by many. … I was taken prisoner … I […]
For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia —Galatians 4:25. In the Scriptures, the desert is the setting for purification, and the mountain is the site of revelation. Moses led the Israelites through the desert to prepare them to receive the Law, which God handed down on Mount Sinai (Ex 20:1-17) amid peals of thunder and […]
“At once, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and angels ministered to him” (Mark 1:12-13). These are the words written by Saint Mark that begin the story of Jesus’s works following his baptism in the Jordan River […]
It is a well-founded observation: More Catholics come to Church on Ash Wednesday (and Palm Sunday) than they do on Christmas and Easter. Reality, or ‘ecclesiastical legend’? Although I wish it were different, I see this as a hopeful sign. It tells me that, as Catholics we want the world to know that we are […]
Action! Saint James tells us that we must demonstrate our faith with actions. As Catholics, that means taking up our crosses and following the Lord. “Faith of itself, without works, is dead,” James says (2:17). His teaching comes directly from the Lord. At Mass word and deed connect. The Scriptures offer the affirmation that […]
I was born to be a New York Giants fan. Being a fan is, quite literally, my birthright. My father is a lifelong fan, and in 1971, the year I was born, star running back Tucker Frederickson completed his final season with the team. Spellbound with nostalgia, my father ensured that Frederickson would remain a […]
Was Saint Paul married? No evidence exists in the scriptures or in tradition that Paul had a wife and family. If he had, it would be difficult to explain why his wife would never once have been referenced either in the Acts of the Apostles or in his own letters. [1] Yet he writes so […]
Before seminary I worked as a reporter. In the news business we used a saying to determine whether a story merited front-page coverage or should be placed on the back page. “If it bleeds, it leads.” In newspaper jargon, it means, “If you want blood, we’ve got it,” and never let the facts get in […]
Once I ran for public office. Actually, it was more like a popularity contest. I was elected the most pessimistic member of the Torrington High School Class of 1989. I won by a large margin. My lone opponent, J.W., was confident he could win, and he campaigned aggressively throughout the halls of THS on a […]
I am rereading Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, the story about the change of heart wrought upon the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge after he is haunted by four ghosts who help him discover the true meaning of Christmas: peace on earth, good will toward all. In Dickens, the supernatural connects with the terrestrial and a wonderful […]
In college, I majored in American Literature but took acting classes because I enjoyed the immediacy of theater. On stage everything happens in the moment. On a recent Sunday I was celebrating Mass and began the ceremony with the sign of the cross and then extended my hands to deliver the greeting: Grace to you […]
Eleven-year-old Ralphie Parker knows what he wants for Christmas. He begs his parents to buy it for him but when they say they won’t he takes his plea straight to the top: Santa Claus. “What do you want?” Santa asks. Ralphie confidently answers: “I want an official Red Ryder carbine-action two-hundred shot range […]
I rejoiced greatly to find some of our children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the Father — 2 John 4. The English poet W.H. Auden (1907-1973) defined poetry as “memorable speech.” A poem depicts reality by using dense language constructed around vivid images in few words. In a word, poetry means thrift. […]
“Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” This is one of four forms of dismissal to be used at the conclusion of the Mass, according to the revised Roman Missal. Every moment of our lives is an opportunity to glorify God using the talents we receive in the Eucharist. “Let everything that lives […]
The Second Epistle of Saint Peter is the twenty-second book of the New Testament and included in the collection known as the Catholic or universal epistles. The author claims to be Simon Peter, apostle of Jesus, an eyewitness to the transfiguration, and a dear brother of the Apostle Paul. Second Peter is as immeasurable as […]
The call came after vespers. They had arrived. UPS confirmed delivery with a “quantum email.” Shouldn’t I go to the office and pick them up right now? No, I decided. Not tonight. Wait until morning and relish the delicious anticipation, like a kid waiting until morning to see what Santa Claus left beneath the Christmas […]
“For our gospel did not come to you in word alone but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction” (1 Thess 1:5). In ancient times the city of Thessalonica was an important trade city situated along the Via Egnatia, the Roman Empire’s major east-west thoroughfare, running from Byzantium to the […]
As a priest I am called upon to administer the sacraments of healing: anointing and confession. Often these sacraments are dispensed together, when I visit people in their homes, at the hospital, or at nursing homes. Most people are familiar with confession but frequently I am met with a look of bewilderment from the patients […]
The Roman galley cruised through the surf and flotsam into the harbor on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. While the galley slaves slumped exhausted across their oars, the convicts disembarked and formed a long chain bound for the penal colony and marched up the road to the sound of the lash and […]
I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me; rather, I went into Arabia — Galatians 1:17. John the Baptist was dead. Herod Antipas had had him executed to placate the cruelty of Herodias, his second wife, who had demanded that the king deliver to her the prophet’s head. An ugly night […]
The First Epistle of Peter is the second of the seven “catholic” or universal epistles written and circulated to the faithful throughout the world during the first century following the birth of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Simon Peter wrote this short letter, in just 105 verses. Or the letter might have been dictated to Silvanus, […]
