I have had a few recent encounters with students, alumni, and friends of Rockhurst University that, I believe, will help shape my role there in upcoming years.  They all pointed to the value of friendships.  Perhaps, most explicit was the installation ceremony of new members in my fraternity’s local chapter.  Through it, I reminisced how […]

In Robert Services’ famous poem, “Carry On,” he encourages human engagement in every aspect of life, from the youthful energy of overzealous adolescents to the struggled breathing of those in their final days on earth.  He ends with these words: “Carry on! Carry on! Fight the good fight and be true; believe in your mission, […]

Author David Brooks will be the guest of Rockhurst University later this month, speaking about the road to character in today’s world.  Among his many best-selling books are The Social Animal, The Second Mountain, and The Road to Character.  He is a columnist for the New York Times and an analyst on PBS NewsHour and […]

In addition to being a time for prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, Lent is a season of reconciliation and healing, a time for forgiveness: to both give it and receive it.  Each of us has been hurt relationally or damaged emotionally by painful occurrences in our lives.  Though we eventually get beyond the agony through much […]

Each ecclesial year, early days of the Lenten season take us into the desert with Jesus to encounter the darkness of demons that haunt us, and then to the mountaintop to catch a glimpse of a higher, brighter glory beyond this existence.  Though a mercurial shift in spiritual altitude and a roller coaster-type experience for […]

There are several formulas used for receiving ashes to begin the Lenten season.  The most common ritual is to be smeared on the forehead with soot while a ministering agent proclaims: “Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return.”  Another familiar phrase used is: “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the […]

Love is in the air on Valentine’s Day.  According to legends surrounding the saint for whom this day is named, he encouraged courtship and marriage among young couples of his time while the local emperor discouraged soldiers from distracting themselves through romance when they needed to focus on battle.  Valentine knew that love always wins.  […]

Strengthened by recent gridiron mettle and fortified by local beliefs, we’re incentivized by the determination of the Kansas City Chiefs.  The injury list was extensive: many side-lined, while others play in pain, amidst fractures, dislocations, bruises—though all for a greater gain.  Gaining another AFC championship, traveling back for the Super Bowl, we play the Eagles […]

In my senior year of college, the Kansas City Royals went to the World Series for the first time but lost the fall classic to the team from Philadelphia, four games to two.  That was forty-two years ago—a long time to hold on to something.  But that’s what sports fans often do.  “Philly” is the […]

I am no expert on yoga.  But I know that some people think it’s focus is Hindu spirituality that promotes pantheism, the belief that everything is God and God is everything (“pan” means all and “theos” means God).  For them, physical poses unite us with universal divine energy so that we become more closely one […]