Falling Upward: Dealing With Failure in the Spiritual Life

Men do not like to fail. We find much of our identity in our ability to not be a failure. Yet, if we are honest, our spiritual lives are often characterized by the very thing we dread—failure. Our resolutions and our aspirations simply...

Prayer Takes Practice: Five Ways to Improve Your Prayer Life

How much time and energy is exerted in obtaining a degree from some prestigious University?  How much blood, sweat and tears are expended to win a trophy from some sporting event? How much time and energy can even be consumed in preparing for a...

#FultonFridays: Courage is the Virtue We Need

This post is part of the ongoing #FultonFridays series, in which I share the writings of Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen.  Goodness, patriotism, honesty and loyalty are losing their battles not by conflict, but by default. Those who are called to be...

Being Over Doing: Resisting the Cult of Speed

If there’s one thing our culture values, it is speed. Fast food. Fast cars. Fast internet. The more quickly and efficiently anything can be done, the better. Yet there are few things more destructive to authentic human experience than speed. Hurriedness is...

Cross Fit: 10 Ways to Stay Spiritually Healthy

Healthy organic foods, physical health centers, taking various vitamin pills, exotic vacation resort getaways, and many others are all attempts to maintain good bodily health. No doubt, all of this can be good for this simple reason: our body is the...

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...