Some years ago, I met a five-year-old girl named Mary who had just, only a few days earlier, been presented with a brand new red toy wagon. She never tired of giving her dog Sheppy rides in it. Little Mary smiled at me and whispered: “You know what? I
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Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. –Matthew 5:8– Some years ago, an experienced teaching sister at Immaculate Conception Elementary School in Allentown, Pennsylvania, stood before her second-grade class on the first day of school. “Boys and girls,” she began, “my name is Sister Assunta.”
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For I know well the Spring that flows and runs,Although it is night. That eternal Spring is hidden, For I know well where it has its rise,Although it is night.I do not know its origin, nor has it one;But I know that every origin has come from it,Although it is
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And he [i.e. Jesus] said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” But he strictly charged them and commanded them not to tell this to anyone, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by
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Recently, a friend took me and another friend to one of my favorite local eateries, namely The Hummus House on 15th and Chew, right here in Allentown. It was late in the afternoon, and the three of us were the only customers in the five-table establishment. As my friends
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A Homily Preached for the Opening of Catholic Schools Week Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena, Allentown, Pennsylvania 25 January 2015 Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh
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“For with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you.” –Luke 6:38– Concerning the story I am about to relate, permit me to use the words of Father Peter Lonergan in The Quiet Man: “Well, I can’t say it’s true, and I won’t say it’s not.” Several years
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I fondly recall the first time I was invited to have dinner at the home of Kevin Damitz and his family. Kevin is the Director of Religious Education at Saint Thomas More parish here in Allentown, and he and his wife Susie are blessed with eight happy, well-adjusted children. As
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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 moreWoe 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
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