I spent the weekend painting all the trim in the house a beautiful bright white. I was fairly sure the end result would reveal that I need to continue with painting the walls. Oops! I was unprepared for the stark contrast between the fresh new paint and the dull dirty walls. Time to really get [...]
Our mission, to make them, pray them, and give them away once again went into action as thousands of people visited the Rosary Army booth — some curious, some skeptical (they’re free?), and some who come back year after year to practice their knot-making and get a refresher course in attaching the crucifix.
Rosary Army has been [...]
Today is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. According to Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Marialis Cultus, “This celebration… is meant to commemorate the part played by Mary in this mystery of salvation….It is likewise a fitting occasion for renewed adoration of the newborn Prince of Peace, for listening once more to the [...]
I know we’re all trying to make a concerted effort to stay on task and celebrate Advent before Christmas, instead of what the retail industry would have us do, which is to embrace Christmas before Halloween so the Valentine’s Day hearts can go on sale on December 26. Well, who said we had to listen?
I [...]
Today, people all over the United States are celebrating a national day of thanksgiving. It’s a day of family, feasting, and football!
Actually, the traditions are as varied and diverse as the people who celebrate this day. While the traditional fare includes turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie, a visit to our dinner table will [...]
Another presidential campaign cycle is winding down. Today, on the eve of elections, many people are thinking about and going over the issues one last time before commiting to a candidate tomorrow. Some, like me, have exercised the opportunity to vote early. Regardless of when we get around to casting that vote, the nation, it [...]
When I was a kid, I used to watch my mom while she read her favorite books. In those very early days in the United States, she read dime novels in Spanish — some Corin Tellado stories that pre-dated the English-language Harlequin Romances. As her English improved, my mom graduated to reading Erma Bombeck’s columns, [...]
Most of the time when I get a new book I read it immediately. I sit down and zoom through it with great passion and zeal, and then just as suddenly it’s over, and I’m left yearning for the next literary fix.
That crash and burn technique serves me well; I am in the business of [...]
I ran into Jesus and Mary at church. I know, that’s no surprise. It’s not what you think, though.
As I entered the church last Sunday I happened to glance curiously at a couple surrounded by some county sheriff’s deputies and some Spanish-speaking parishioners, and in passing saw some luggage piled in a corner. While my [...]
It seems like I’ve been in a bit of a prayer rut lately. Maybe it’s the changing season; maybe it’s that I am undergoing some kind of change myself. I dunno. But I do know that I have felt an absence of something, or perhaps not so much an absence of something as a deep-seated [...]
