A Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter A while back, while driving down I-27, I passed a billboard that said, “Church Should be Fun!” I thought to myself, “Really?” I weighed the notion, then shook my head. “What garbage!” Don’t get me wrong. I think church youth groups should be fun and pitching in at parish festival should...

“It takes two things to knock down a tree: a strong wind and a rotten trunk.” So began my presentation to a group of recovering drug addicts. I turned and pointed to a slide on the screen behind me: A STRONG TRUNK = STRONG CHARACTER.  “What builds strong character? Virtue! The practice of virtue.” I was fired up. I could hear convic...

This article was previously published in Sword & Spade Magazine. Tommy Killackey discusses the loss of virtuous friendship in our culture of kitsch.   A sunset, an adventure, a tragedy, a profound belief, a moment encountering the sublime: life’s most riveting moments seem to demand from deep within us the need to share them....

This article was previously published in Sword & Spade Magazine. Benjamin Mann, as one deeply involved in vocations within the Eastern  Catholic traditions, corrects a common problem in discernment.   It is quite traditional and correct to speak of “discerning a vocation” — particularly to consecrated life or the priesthoo...

Mighty grain elevators—1,500 broad-shouldered "Sentinels of the Plains"—once stood guard over farm towns across the State of Texas. Today, less than a third of the aged watchmen report for duty. In their place, prison towers now shadow the edge of many rural communities. I spent the first week of November in one of those prison towns. Normal...

This article was previously published in Sword & Spade Magazine. Gregory Matthews, corporate lawyer, is concerned that versions of  the American dream are leading some to a nightmare. Our communities are being torn apart today by a host of divisive agendas that are seemingly promoted by all of our cultural institutions, from the classroo...

This article was previously published in Sword & Spade magazine. Fr. Matthew Buettner, Spiritual Director at St. Joseph College  Seminary, Charlotte, distinguishes loneliness and solitude. Man is a social animal. Most of us enter the world in the context of a community, principally, a family. Even the Son of God stepped onto the stage of...

In the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned. Travelers took to winding paths. (Judges 5:6) When it comes to long-distance travel, most people book airline flights or drive Interstates. Personally, I prefer blue highways, those two-lane roads printed in blue, squiggly lines on foldout maps. My schedule does not allow much for scenic ro...

Invocations from the Litany of Loreto play in my mind as I drive through Indiana and across Illinois:                                                             Morning Star                                                             Ark of the Covenant                     ...

This article was previously published in Sword & Spade Magazine. Tim Bennett, handyman and father, learns more from a son than he’ll ever teach him. I call myself a handyman, and I truly enjoy the work that I do because I’m not doing the same thing every day. I often get to be challenged by working through problems that many people ca...