Repentance and the Fatherhood of God

One of the most common mistakes we make is thinking of sin as merely a legal matter. That is, that it sin is only about breaking a code of laws and rules and righteousness about conforming to them. But to think...

Attention and the Distraction Addiction

There are two ways to go through life: Mindfully or mindlessly. In the first instance, we pay attention. We see things and notice them in order to appreciate them. We hear things in order to understand them. We seek to know...

A Vow of Stability: A Call to Commitment in an Age of Choice

Recently, while traveling for business, I was tired after a long day and so began scrolling through the channels on the hotel television. Because there was next to nothing worth watching on the hundreds of channels available, I finally settled on...

The People of the Cross: The New-Martyrs of Egypt

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, was the beginning of Holy Week. Worshippers of the ancient Coptic Orthodox Church in Tanta, Egypt were gathered together, palm branches in hand, to remember the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of his Passion. Without warning,...

Repentance and Cleaning House

I am the father of three children four and under. It is always startling to me, though it shouldn’t be at this stage, how quickly things can spin out of control. A perfectly clean house that took a great deal of...

5 Celtic Prayers and Blessings for St. Patrick’s Day

The Celtic Christian tradition has much to offer us living in the modern world. For one, the Celtic people and their descendants possessed an intuitive awareness of God’s presence in all creation—an awareness we moderns have largely lost. From the waves...

Cardinal Newman’s Simple Rule of Life

Blessed John Henry Newman was a Cardinal of the Catholic Church and one of the most famous English converts to the faith. While he was a distinguished man of letters, an erudite apologist, and an accomplished prelate, he was known most of...