This article is an adaptation from Leaving Boyhood Behind (OSV, 2019). Genesis, the beginning of the story of salvation, can be understood as a battle over the meaning of power. God created the entire world and then sets man “in dominion” over it. This world is not democratic but is assigned rulers. The fish and birds rule the sea and air,...

This article was originally published in Sword & Spade magazine. Rusty Zimmerman reflects on the fruit of failed small  groups on a college campus. "Progress shall mark our every step.” I first heard that motto in my college fraternity, a place where I lived brotherhood. “Strive for success and learn from our failures,” was my inte...

This article was originally published in Sword & Spade magazine. David Gates, Fraternus Sage, describes the power  and necessity of belonging in the Green Berets. I was fortunate enough to be one of the three, one the very few to belong to one of the most elite fighting forces in the world. The path to belonging is hard one, and it’s h...

I do not have any biological brothers, but I do have 5 sons.  In my fraternal poverty (biological speaking), however, I have learned its value, learning through fraternal bonds with other men how important brotherhood is.  And, conversely, seeing the battles and fights that arise between my sons shows the other side of the blessing – the tensio...

The liturgical rites of the Church can be strikingly formative.  I once visited a Benedictine monastery and attended one of the sung offices of the monks.  I was particularly moved witnessing the monks, as they entered and exited their stalls, bow first to the altar and then, two by two from the opposing sides of the choir, turn to bow toward his...

By: Leo Gallegos “Every day that passes, I fall more desperately in love with the mountains… I am ever more determined to climb the mountains, to scale the mighty peaks, to feel that pure joy which can only be felt in the mountains.” Bl. Pier Gorgio Frassati. As we embrace the season of Lent, I am reminded of one of my favorite hiking trips...

“The result of these shared experiences [in combat during WWII] was a closeness unknown to all outsiders. Comrades are closer than friends, closer than brothers. Their relationship is different from that of lovers. Their trust in, and knowledge of each other is total.” -p.21 Band of Brothers, Stephen E. Ambrose This quote has swung around in m...

Six years of my priesthood were spent serving as the Vice Rector of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland - my previous assignment. Emmitsburg is a small town with a great Catholic Heritage; But just eight miles north of the town is the historic Gettysburg National Battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  Since the National Park Ser...

Boys cannot become men without men.  Pope Pius XI once pointed out the fact that, especially during the formative years, the sexes should be separated: False and harmful to Christian education today is the so-called method of ‘co-education’… a deplorable confusion of ideas… The Creator has ordained and disposed perfect union of the sexes ...

One of the blessings of teaching religion to high schoolers is that I get to witness to how God has transformed my life. This comes up in various ways through a myriad of lessons in all the grades I teach. Over the years, one particular topic, one special piece of advice, has resurfaced in various contexts: discerning one’s vocation. Everyone mus...