And people brought to him [i.e. Jesus] a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked
Read more
During my twenty-four-year stay in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, I came to know a woman named Anne who, in many ways, was like a second mother to me. Anne was full of maternal wisdom. About her own children, she’d say, “You can give birth to ‘m, but you can’t explain ‘m.” She
Read moreAmen I say to you, as long as you did it for one of these, the least, of my brethren, you did it for me. –Matthew 25:40– I have a confession to make. I am an unashamed and unabashed reader and lover of fairy tales. That’s right. But I
Read more
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 more
Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure: Married in haste, we may repent at leisure. –William Congreve, The Old Batchelour (1693)– Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterwards. –Ben Franklin– As a Catholic student at Moravian College (Bethlehem, PA), in the late 1970s, in
Read more
Isn’t it amazing how many jokes there are about the hardships of married life? We’ve all heard them. Here, for example, are only four: I never knew what bliss was until I got married, and now it’s too late. My wife and I were perfectly happy for thirty years.
Read more
Catholic priest, it has been my privilege to preside at quite a few weddings over the years. Many of the happy couples whom I’ve married insist on having what is commonly known as a “unity candle” as part of their ceremony. Perhaps you yourself have witnessed the ritual of the
Read more
Therefore now they are no longer two, but one flesh. –Matthew 19:6– Most people who own cactus plants are familiar with what is known as a grafted cactus. Botanists are able to take two very different species of cactus and join them together. The resulting plant, though it would
Read more