At the very beginning of the Bible, in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, we have this description of the Tower of Babel: While men were migrating eastward, they discovered a valley in the land of Sennaar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks
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Imagine. It is the year 1440. You are standing on a quiet hillside somewhere deep in the heart of France. Off in the distance, you see the double-spired magnificence of a Gothic cathedral, its newly quarried stone gleaming white against a backdrop of green trees and azure sky. Almost
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When I taught at Bethlehem Catholic High School in the 1990s, there was a custom that each of the four classes could decorate a hallway for Catholic Schools Week. One year, the seniors, who had been reading Dante’s Divine Comedy in English class, hit upon a very creative idea.
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When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. –Luke 2:21– Years ago, January 1st used to be known as the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord. That makes, not only
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These last have worked a single hour, and thou hast put them on a level with us, who have borne the burden of the day’s heat –Matthew 20:12– When my little sister Carol was young, she used to read a magazine called Children’s Highlights. Every issue contained a clever
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“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent
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Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. –Psalm 90:12– I grew up during the era of television game shows. To Tell the Truth, Password, Let’s Make a Deal, Queen for a Day, Concentration, Truth or Consequences, The Match Game, I’ve Got a
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He [viz. John the Baptist] went throughout [the] whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of
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My friend Joyce had been working as a chaplain at the state hospital for the mentally ill, some thirteen years ago, when the staff got the word that the facility would be closing. It was a gradual process, and every effort was made to find other places for the employees
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The poem below was inspired by “Try Something Different” by Price Pritchett, a story that appeared in the original Chicken Soup for the Soul. True freedom does not mean doing what I want, but freely choosing to obey the will of Christ, Who is the Door to freedom itself (John
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