We all have our private griefs. I have mine and you have yours. I think it’s highly unlikely that you will ever meet another human being who has none. That seems to be the nature of our existence in this life. If God had wanted it to be any other way, no doubt nothing would ever [...]
Very often, in the comment boxes of a blog, I’ll come across a reference to a “sky fairy”, or a “sky god.” Supposedly, we Catholics worship such a deity, at least according to the beliefs of the atheists who post their comments. I’ve been a Catholic for a good many years, and I’ve never come across [...]
Easter, the celebration of the rising of Jesus from the tomb, happened this year on Sunday, April fourth. Christ has conquered death, once and for all. But our human partiality towards violent solutions, twisted moral choices, and self-absorption goes on. So, in a metaphorical sense, you can say that Christ still suffers His agony. He still [...]
Holy Week is near. It commemorates solemn and awful events. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is arrested, tortured, and executed. Most of His followers make themselves scarce. The Son of Man is betrayed and murdered by those He came to save. And yet the history, as we know, ends not on [...]
I belong to a Godfathers’ Circle. It may sound like a meeting of mafia chieftains, but it’s not. We’re a small group of old guys who get together once a month for prayer, a reading of the daily passage in the Gospel, reflection, meditation, and a little socializing over coffee and pastries. We rarely discuss politics. [...]
Most of us have been following the news about the earthquake in Chile. I’ve never been through a serious temblor myself, though as a small child I once woke up in the middle of the night to feel the earth give a rapid shrug. A few glasses fell off a shelf. Nothing worse happened.But we have [...]
There's a great light all around us to which we are blind at birth, often by upbringing, and sometimes by inclination. If this blindness were gone for an instant, the true glory of the world and its meaning would be shown to us. The great light would not dazzle us with its clarity and force. And [...]
To be alive or not to be,Conception by the world’s CreatorTaken in stenographyBy one of Avon, William Shakespeare Tragedy, a life quill-written,Dipped in blackest, deepest gallOf English oak on floppy vellum,Scratched and scrawled At one end of a finished lineA period, a rounded splash,The smallest part of God’s design:Hamlet, prince, depressed and brash Never would there be a script,No [...]
Said demon to the devilkin:“How would you prepareTo stuff the sum of mankind inOur kingdom of despair?”“I’d tell them," said the grimy one,"''Relax, there is no God.'”“That won’t convince the whole of them,And some will merely nod.”"I’ll say to them: 'There is no hell,Be easy as you were.'"“That doesn’t catch them all as well,A few will [...]
I’ve had another online debate with someone who says he’s an atheist, although you never know these days who is pure in his atheism, and who is carrying a torch for one goddess or another. It sometimes changes from sentence to sentence. When I used to visit Russia, almost everyone I met had been raised, officially, [...]
