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...

This article was previously published in Sword & Spade magazine. by Joshua Johnson Fourteen years ago, I married a girl who is a twin from a twin family. At her family reunions, it is the singletons who are the freaks. So, sure enough, the first time we conceived, it was twins! Surprisingly, the second and third pregnancies were singleton...

Fr. Alan Mackey describes the chains of sin and the means of escape. After time spent in the confessional, a priest, in due time, will begin to recognize that the genesis of a great deal of suffering is due to sin. The abuse of free will, while enticing at the beginning, leads one away from our Heavenly Father, who is the source of what is true,...

Daniel Kerr, founder of St. Martin’s Academy, discusses the loss and necessary finding of hard won experience.   A recent TIME magazine edition was dedicated exclusively to dispelling its readership from the gloom of finding themselves awake in a world they didn’t like. Apoplectic and growing increasingly bewildered by the glow of a ...

This article was originally published in Sword & Spade magazine.   Aaron Kheriaty, MD, a Catholic psychologist, explains the reality of depression and psychological suffering.   Jesus Christ’s ministry is a ministry of healing. Yes, He healed the physical ailments of many while on earth, and has done so through His Body,...

This article was originally published in Sword & Spade Magazine. Peter Gagnon, Fraternus Captain and father of 7, learned  new lessons in leading while bound to a bed with cancer.  I have always taught my children to meet challenges head on, but “teaching” took on a whole new look when I entered the darkest and most painful part of ...

One of the cruelest banalities of soft (and false) Christianity is the idea that God alleviates the suffering of the righteous.  In America especially there’s a sense that the lessening of suffering is a sign of your election, of God’s love for you (Calvinism is hard to shake from our imagination).  If you’re not relieved from sufferi...

Recently, a loved one of mine has been experiencing relentless pain. It all began with minor aches years ago which have gradually become worse and worse – to the point of interfering with his day to day life. The pain has even affected his ability to get consistent sleep. As you can imagine, this can quickly lead to a vicious cycle. The problem ...

Why should we succumb to suffering? It can come in many ways. The pain caused by a broken leg. The suffering caused by a chronic illness, with no cure. The grief one feels when his true love breaks his heart. The sorrow caused when a loved one dies, removing him or her from his life until his own death. The pain caused by betrayal, especially when ...

Every morning the Church begins the Liturgy of the Hours with the invitatory psalm, Psalm 95, which calls us to start our day by recognizing the Lordship of God and worshipping Him. It ends, however, in more startling fashion, calling to mind the Israelites’ rebellion against God in the wilderness (in their 40 years of wandering in the desert aft...