Frequent fliers live by many rules. One of the biggies: Never talk to seatmates. Put on your headphones, get immersed in reading, or close your eyes. Given...
Church holidays
We have all been there; the thoughtful gift, selected with care, presented with pride. And we have absolutely no use for it. Maybe the gift is nice, but not to...
Attending Sunday Mass last year over Independence Day weekend, I watched as the priest gave the final blessing and a man a couple rows ahead genuflected and...
On Good Friday millions of Christians prayerfully mark the way of the cross. Pope Francis often notes that Christ’s crucifixion is not just historical but...
I took my son to church for Holy Thursday for the first time last year when he was just more than 18 months old. I worried that we’d have to leave early or...
Memories of a Catholic boyhood. It is Ash Wednesday, and the choices about what to give up for Lent finally take effect. I remember that Ash Wednesday meant...
Ash Wednesday has become a very popular feast day, perhaps more important to some people than Holy Days of Obligation. At Marquette University, where I teach...
When someone wishes us a Happy New Year, too often the spirit of the cynic is tempted to rise up from its subterranean swamp in our souls. What’s so new about...
I was well into my adult years before I knew the church had a day set aside for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a commemoration of King Herod’s murder of all...
Las Posadas began the night I drove into downtown El Paso, Texas, my Subaru crammed with everything I thought I’d need for a year away from home. I’d been...
