They’re Not Seeking
Recently, the discussion of “spiritual seekers” came up amongst some religious professionals I kibitz with from time to time. I mentioned casually that Christian Smith the great sociologist from Notre…
Imagine No Religion
Mary Donovan, one of the Catholic Volunteers here in Buffalo blogs on occasion and she recently told this tale describing a provocative topic in one of the citizenship classes at…
They Gave Their Life For My Dad
I don’t know if I’ve ever told this story but Memorial Day is just as good as any day to tell it. Back in the 50s, my dad, newly married…
In Gratitude for Priests
In many places, it’s ordination weekend. Congrats to all those being ordained today. Fr. Jack Collins, CSP, my dear friend, asked me some time ago to write a general letter…
A Dog Never Leaves His Master
A Terrier Mix did the unbelievable this week. After being caught in the Twister and missing for weeks, the dog dragged his two broken front paws all the way home.…
19th Annotation: Freedom is Mine
So I just completed my group-based 19th Annotation retreat with the folks at St. Michael’s parish downtown in Buffalo. After going through the Ignatian exercises with the group I have…
When All We Have Is Time
It started in Kindergarten. The hospitals and doctors tried to figure out what was wrong. The sleepless nights she endured wracked with pain and the anxiety that followed the asthma…
Houston, We Have No Footage
How in the world does this happen? An exhaustive, three-year search for some tapes that contained the original footage of the Apollo 11 moonwalk has concluded that they were probably…
You Will Do Greater Works Than These
Sunday’s gospel has Jesus imploring his disciples to believe that Jesus and the Father are one. Not an easy idea to grasp in the first place. Then he goes on…
Angelic Tails
Joan Wester Anderson the author of many books on angels took a look back on her books and found dogs riddled through each story after story. Ironically, she’s never owned…