Split Rock Lighthouse is the most beautiful sight you can imagine - at least in the Mid-West. Perched high above the rocky shore of Lake Superior in Northern Minnesota, there is something awesome and inspiring about a visit there. I had taken my 23-year-old actress for a day trip up to Split Rock during the week [...]
[DISCLAIMER: It's going to sound in this post as if I'm never satisfied, that all I really want to do is find fault with Enthusiastic Catholics, Ghetto Catholics and Muddled Catholics - the Manic, the Depressive and Everything in Between (respectively) - but my criticism is not about Mania, Depression or Confusion as such - but [...]
Salon, of all places, has re-published a 1939 article by Mahatma Ghandi about the evils of contraception and of "wasting seed". Here it is. The boldface is mine, as are the comments in red. *** It is the fashion in some quarters nowadays for the young to discredit whatever may be said by old people. I am [...]
Maria Romine (whose conversion story you can watch here) was talking about her first Lent as a Catholic. Maria Romine (the only good person in the Theater of the Word Incorporated) as St. Jeanne Jugan "I gave up caffeine - no coffee or tea at all," she said to the two priests who were hosting us [...]
I am sad to note today the passing of Deacon Bill Steltemeier, longtime leader at EWTN, second only to EWTN's foundress, Mother Angelica, in his influence and authority at the Network. Deacon Bill Steltemeier (left) with Jeremy Stanbary on the set of my series, The Theater of the Word, in the studios of EWTN, 2008. Deacon [...]
We sinners aren't so much trying to set up a Comfortable Substitute for Reality, but a Controlled Substitute for Reality. A friend of mine described what it was like for her to be addicted to nicotine. "It wasn't so much the physical craving for a cigarette," she said, "as it was the desire for the handy [...]
My tutoring student just answered questions on an assignment in the on-line course she's taking, and she answered them in typical bored teen-ager fashion. The answers were pro-forma, incomplete, lazy - belying the fact that she's one of the most intelligent and engaging young women I've ever met. I gave her some advice on how to [...]
There were several full size buses. The parking lot was jammed. Teens and their parents were all over the place. It was cold and dark, 6:00 at night. It was the parking lot of St. Mark's Catholic Church in South St. Louis County. The buses were gathering the young participants who would be participating in the [...]
One of the things that has always struck me about the Annunciation, when Gabriel appeared to Mary and she accepted the gift of the Holy Spirit and conceived Jesus, is that in every depiction I have ever seen of this event, Mary is shown praying when she is visited. Sometimes she has a book upon which [...]
Here I am as Superman. Well, here I am performing a singing telegram as a Superman-type character who does not violate any copyright or trademark laws. This picture was taken in 1982 or so. In those days, I managed to perform over 2,000 singing telegrams across the St. Louis area for Eastern Onion and for [...]
