Pray for those who persecute and calumniate you. –Matthew 5:44– I love fairy tales, and by far the very best author of fairy tales is George MacDonald. In his wonderful story, The Day Boy and the Night Girl, an evil witch named Watho mercilessly torments a young hunter named Photogen
Read moreA Time for Bonding
Joseph stood alone at the entrance to the cave and saw the first light of dawn touch the eastern horizon. It had been a long night. The child had been born some six hours ago. The shepherds had come and gone, and now his wife Mary was in the
Read moreSprayed or Dyed?
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. –Matthew
Read moreSaving Souls through Suffering
Help Me, My daughter, to save souls. Join your sufferings to My Passion and offer them to the Heavenly Father for sinners. –Jesus’ instruction to Saint Faustina (Diary #1032)– “Dad, can I drive the car?” This request did not spring from the lips of an eager adolescent with
Read moreMarriage!
Homily delivered on the 50th wedding anniversary of Anna Marie & Richard Culver 20 November 2015 Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chapel, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain
Read moreA Man’s Soul Is HIS Castle
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.” –Matthew 1:23– Some years ago, I was fortunate enough to travel in Scotland along with three other priest friends. As our rented minivan bumped along the highland
Read moreThe Luminaria Lighter or the Oblivious Boater?
You are the light of the world. –Matthew 5:14– Imagine you are setting up luminaria for Christmas Eve. You have carefully positioned dozens of alternating red and green paper bags along your driveway and sidewalk, each bag containing a little sand and one candle. Now the sun is down. You
Read moreIt’s About Time
For years now, we Christians have been told by the secular world that the use of the temporal designations “Anno Domini” (A.D.) and “Before Christ” (B.C.) is utterly insensitive to the feelings of those who do not happen to worship Jesus. Instead, we are all but forced to replace
Read moreIn Heaven, There Is No Marriage
For at the resurrection they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be as angels of God in heaven. –Matthew 22:30– What? No marriage in the afterlife? The greatest bond of love a man and woman can know on earth will not survive into the hereafter?
Read moreIt’s Lent. Don’t Give Up!
Another Lent is already upon us. It hardly seems possible. When we think of Lent, we usually think of “giving up” something. We ask each other, “What are you going to give up for Lent this year?” Yet I believe this approach somehow misses the mark. Lent is not a
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