Many people get creeped-out by the ubiquitous little Elf on the Shelf who, in colorful leotards and a facial smirk, keeps watch over children around the world in their homes from Thanksgiving until Christmas, scoping out naughty and nice behaviors to report to Santa Claus. The arctic minion even appears in classrooms to help teachers […]
As families across the nation gather for the annual Thanksgiving feast, Kacey Musgraves song, Family Is Family, will resonate on some level—even if only a surface level. “They’re there for your first year and they’ll slip you your first beer…they own too much wicker and drink too much liquor…they may smoke like chimneys but’ll give […]
Pope Francis sometimes reminds us that Jesus’ religion was one of accompaniment. Though Jewish, He didn’t view Judaism as a set of rules, rubrics, customs, or costumes, nor merely the observance of dogma and doctrine. Rather, He viewed religion as a way of life that helps people find a path from their current messy situation […]
Like Jesus did, many spiritualists compare the Holy Spirit to the wind—the breath of God. Both are invisible yet they can be felt, even heard; they stir the atmosphere in sometimes unpredictable and powerful ways. In the early 1960’s, when Peter, Paul, and Mary crooned the famous refrain, “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in […]
“You’ll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley…” Sting’s pensive lyrics from Fields of Gold inspire us to recall the most treasured moments of our lives. November is a month of remembrance and gratitude. For the Catholic Church, it begins with the Festival of All Saints and Commemoration of All […]
According to ancient Judeo-Christian tradition, the Sabbath begins as the sun sets and darkness descends upon the eve of the day that follows. So Jews gather in synagogues and temples on Friday evenings while Catholics gather for the Saturday evening vigil to mark their Day of the Lord. Similarly, kids originally dressed up as saints […]
It seems that at the heart of our Catholic Church’s maladies these days is a chasm that exists between the people of God and ecclesiastics (church types). The chasm widens as young people leave the church in droves, bishops lose moral credibility, and ecclesiastics permit, even promote, pharisaicalism. Pharisaical attitudes, according to Jesus, were the […]
