It starts with the reality of the question, “What is praise?” For most of us, we think praise is being thankful. It is not! Being thankful is a byproduct of praise, but it is not praise. Praise describes...
“On one occasion, I saw the throne of the Lamb of God and before the throne three Saints: Stanislaus Kostka, Andrew Bobola and Prince Casimir, who were interceding for Poland.” (Diary, 689) That...
Since my last essay was about Jesus’ Last Sermon, I thought it would be fitting for me to explore His First Sermon, which is better known as The Sermon on the Mount. It includes some of the most quotable sayings in the...
“On one occasion, I saw the throne of the Lamb of God and before the throne three Saints: Stanislaus Kostka, Andrew Bobola and Prince Casimir, who were interceding for Poland.” (Diary, 689) That God has...
In 1967, while traveling on an airplane, the Canadian singer-songwriter, Joni Mitchell, was deep into a novel entitled, Henderson the Rain King. Early on, the troubled and middle-aged Henderson was on a plane destined...
Once I read a saying that really encapsulates what I would like to say: Life is full of surprises. Embrace the unexpected and find the joy in every moment. This has been the experience I went through when my...
We live in an age of instant communication. Because of satellites orbiting the earth, we can place a phone call to someone on the other side of the world in a matter of seconds; also, our smartphones allow us to speak...
In these readings (Deuteronomy 8:2-3,14-16; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58) there is an invitation extended to all of us to capitalize on today’s feast of Corpus Christi so that our personal and communal bond with...
A new season is underway for baseball. Arizona and Florida are rife with activity as young players try to see if they can make it to the big leagues and older players try to prove they can still play. Grown men playing...
For a moment, imagine that someone set before you a 5-Carot diamond ring and a 5-gallon jug of water and informed you that, for no cost, either could be yours. Which would you choose? But wait. Before...
When Eternal God speaks to Himself, he sings in Algebra! If God were to harbor a single stray thought, He could sketch out Newtonian Motion. If He were to author a temporal treatise, it would be written perfectly in the...
Once there was a priest—we’ll call him Father Smith—who heard that the neighboring Catholic parish had a newly-painted mural dedicated to the souls in purgatory; the pastor there commissioned it as a way of reminding...
Back in 2001 I was on a two-week pilgrimage in Italy, and it was a very enjoyable and spiritually rewarding time. There were twenty-five people in our group from all across the United States, and we were fortunate...
The gift of faith includes mystery, which is so necessary when seeking God in positive or negative life situations. To focus on the light of God’s truth and the hope of heaven while walking through the...
The palm-tree is called in Hebrew tarmr, and in Greek phœnix. It is a dioecious tree, and belongs to the natural order Palmaceae. The plants of this interesting family are characterized by their tall, usually unbranched...
When we look at our lives, if we are honest, the vast majority of our time, the vast majority of our effort, and the vast majority of our resources are spent on earthly pursuits. The problem with that is that we...
I had a friend who passed away this past week and have taken his death hard. I knew him for 65 years. As we aged, we both knew that father time would take its toll on us. For me, it was especially hard given that my...
…so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3: 15) This sentence, along with some others, can be easily misinterpreted to indicate that, as long as we believe in Christ Jesus, we will enjoy...
Some time ago a friend of mine—I’ll call him Ron—had a very moving spiritual experience; he wrote a description of it, which I’d like to read right now. He says: “A few years ago, before my parents passed away, I’d...
The humble Italian priest St. John Bosco (1815-1888) was famous for his work with young people, and also for his many prophetic or symbolic dreams. On one occasion he dreamt a heavenly guide was showing him the road...
An early Christian legend states that after receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the apostles eventually went off to different countries in which to preach the Gospel. St. Thomas ended up in India. Upon arriving...
The early morning of October 8, 2016 was sunny yet chastened by a biting chill. However, the cold gave sincere promise of flowering into a very pleasant day. It was not just the chill that I will take to my grave but...
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche made quite a stir in the late 19th century when he informed the world God is dead! Since then most people have misunderstood what he meant. He wasn’t saying that God had lived and...
On 1 March 1904, Alton Glenn Miller was born in the small town of Clarinda, Iowa. During his youth, he would also call home the states of Missouri, Nebraska, and Colorado. During his high school years spent in Fort...
Many years ago, I attended a lecture in our parish auditorium, given by a Jesuit priest, a Father Paul Coutinho. He was promoting his book How Big is Your God? The title raises an interesting question that relates to...
In his 1946 book, Remade for Happiness, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote the unsacred scripture of our day tells us that time is the very essence of things. We are always in a rush to go somewhere, meet someone for lunch...
On the evening of August 17, 1998, President William Jefferson Clinton addressed the American people with these words: This afternoon in this room, from this chair, I testified before the Office of Independent Counsel...
One of the major issues in bioethics continues to be when a being has “rights.” This is referred to as having “moral status.” For example, if you argue that a child in the womb has no moral status, aborting such a life...
Whatever happened to sin? For the answer to this perplexing question, simply replace the question mark with a period. What happened to sin is that the “whatever” perspective on right and wrong has rendered sin archaic...
It starts with the reality of the question, “What is praise?” For most of us, we think praise is being thankful. It is not! Being thankful is a byproduct of praise, but it is not praise. Praise describes the...
Since my last essay was about Jesus’ Last Sermon, I thought it would be fitting for me to explore His First Sermon, which is better known as The Sermon on the Mount. It includes some of the most quotable sayings in the...
While it is comforting and reassuring to know from the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32) that God’s love for us is such that we are guaranteed a safety net of grace were we to stray and become “big time...
Forty years ago a parish priest in Kansas, Father Stephen Scheier, was involved in a near-fatal car accident, and was rushed, unconscious, to a hospital for emergency treatment. Miraculously he survived, thanks in part...
Time is a very valuable gift given to us by the Lord. He is the owner of the vineyard where our “fig tree” is growing. It would be absurd to expect the fig tree to determine when its time is up. (Luke 13:1-9) That...
Each year, the solemnity of St Joseph invites me to delve deeper into this living gem of God. I love to call St Joseph gem of God because, as we shall see, he was and still is God’s gem for us in many ways. In...
God uses angels, other people and every possible means to impact our lives. I am convinced angels often appear to us if we are given the grace to see them, as Hebrews tells us. Do not neglect hospitality...
In the statistically insignificant experience of my life, I seem to be meeting more and more young people who boldly tell this Deacon that they “no longer practice the faith.” Everett Fritz[1] noted that the arguments...
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Deacon Steve Greco
Paul Suski
William Borst
Deacon Kurt Godfryd
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
Fr Joseph Esper
Fr Dino Vanin
Deacon Gregory Webster
Anthony Perrone
Carolyn Humphreys, O.C.D.S.
Michael Vacca
Donald Wittmer
Vincent Ryan Ruggiero
David Breuhan
Jennifer Borek
Michael Baglino
