Columns Archive

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Proclaim the Good News in This Election Cycle

When I mention to fellow Catholics that I will not be voting on Tuesday, November 5, for either the Republican or the Democratic candidate for president of the United States, […]

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We Must Not Only Accept God’s Commands, We Must Love Them

The turn of the liturgical year into its “home stretch” is a turn toward a focus on the Last Things – heaven, hell, death, and judgment. As we move into […]

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God Alone Provides Shelter from the Storms of Sin and Death

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time The first reading for this weekend is from the Book of Isaiah, precisely from its third and last part. Isaiah on several occasions describes, or […]

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The Battles We Fight

“Choose your battles” is generally good advice. It’s wise to acknowledge that not every fight can be won, that we may not have the resources to sustain a war on […]

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A Treat for Holy Souls

The so-called “spooky season” is well underway. The grocery stores are filled with huge bags of candy, houses along my commute are decorated with blow-up pumpkins and enormous spider webs, […]

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A Moderately Important Election

Because I turned 18 in 1986, the first presidential election in which I was eligible to vote was 1988. In the intervening 36 years, I have never voted for a […]

Each of Us Is Invited to Follow Jesus; Will We Accept His Call? Default Thumbnail
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Each of Us Is Invited to Follow Jesus; Will We Accept His Call?

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time The Book of Wisdom provides the first reading. This book came to be many centuries ago as devout Jews, distant from their homeland and from […]

Sacred Scribbles: Piece by Piece, Page by Page     Default Thumbnail
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Sacred Scribbles: Piece by Piece, Page by Page    

Opal Whiteley was 6 years old when she began keeping a diary, scrawling with a crayon in tightly spaced, phonetically spelled words. She recorded her wanderings and wonderings in the […]

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The Challenges of the Catholic Voter

Every four years, for as long as I’ve been in the Catholic press, editors get two types of phone calls come election time. The first is to complain about the […]

After One Year of Suffering in the Middle East, Here’s How to Help Default Thumbnail
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After One Year of Suffering in the Middle East, Here’s How to Help

Monday, October 7, marked the grim one-year anniversary of the latest war in the Middle East, the date when the Hamas Palestinian terrorist organization attacked Israel out of the blue, […]

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All Men and Women Possess Dignity Given by God

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time The Book of Genesis is the source of the first reading for this weekend. Among the first five books of the Bible, Genesis reveals important […]

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St. Théodore Guérin: A Model of Fidelity

What do we do when faced with those challenges and difficulties that can define us? We should pray to have at least a small share in the fidelity of St. […]