As a seminarian, it is natural to think of my life in relation to priesthood. And, as a matter of fact, that is what I spend most of my time thinking about. All of my classes, my spiritual life, and daily routine are heavily centered around preparation for priesthood – and rightly so. As I inch closer and closer to ordination, there can begin to ...

Independence Day has come again.  For some, it is a day marked by joyous celebrations and expressions of gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy. For others, it is marked by rowdy gatherings of drunkenness, seemingly absent of any real patriotism.  In any case, it surely ought to be marked by reflection.  Reflection on just what it was that compelle...

Freedom, as you well know, is at the very heart of the American experiment.  As (more or less) a man “of conservative impulse”—to use the words of Russell Kirk—this central fact of our American political system is of great importance to me.  Moreover, as I have watched freedom come under attack in our nation, I have awakened more and more...

“Turn left! Watch out, there is a bomb right next to your elbow!” If you had been on the Father/Son retreat I led out on a farm in Virginia a couple of years ago you would have heard these and similar words as fathers guided their blindfolded sons through a “minefield” as the boys scurried around trying to collect candy. If they bumped into...

My favorite thing about John Senior, one of the most successful and influential teachers in the last century, is that his success and influence was not in talking about teaching or writing about teaching.  If the growing talk about his legacy seems to grow, his post-mortem fame is coming from the fact of his teaching.  He’s no John Dewey, famou...

Much of what George Orwell describes in his futuristic novel, 1984, comes right out of the playbook of Communist and totalitarian states of the twentieth century. He went further, however, in his fictitious regime’s attempt to control the mind of its citizens through constant digital surveillance and the omnipresence of media.  His account chill...

People often ask me what the recovery process entails.  Especially when dealing with addiction to pornography, there is a desire to be able to recognize progress since it is such a difficult addiction.  I often describe recovery as a three-tiered process: sobriety, inner-healing, and transformation. Sobriety: Being sober means no longer usin...

I had a teacher in high school who provided the class with an interesting definition of politics.  Defining politics, he maintained, was as simple as just breaking down the word into its parts:  poly = many, tics = blood-sucking creatures. I think we can all agree that’s pretty accurate… All jokes aside, the sad reality is that many people...

Dear Men of The Class of 2017: Somehow it’s already June, so most of you have been through commencement by this point. Your high school classes, teachers, and friends are already a distant memory. You’re likely enjoying the long summer days doing anything but school work. Many of you are now looking ahead to college, or perhaps a job. You pr...

Mr. Brian Jones When Freedom Gives Way to Tyranny  Elucidating the precise manner in which despotism arises in democratic societies, Alexis de Tocqueville has the following to say that is worth quoting in full: I seen an innumerable crowd of like and equal men who revolve on themselves without repose, procuring the small and vulgar pleasures w...