This is the third essay on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Thus far we have discussed “Fear of God” and “Fortitude”. Next up is “Wisdom.” Oh wisdom, the thing that we all strive to have with age. There are many age old expressions and quotations for...
Recently, as I was browsing through my bookshelves, I came across a little book I had bought in Singapore in the 1980s titled A Gentleman’s Code: According to Confucius, Mencius and Others.* Confucius was born over five hundred years before...
Legacy is a beautiful thing. A person lives through the legacy s/he leaves behind. St Thomas Aquinas is one of these people in history who left his legacy. In fact, his legacy remains till this very day. William Shakespeare is reportedly to have...
Toward the end of the 19th century a man in North Carolina named William Sydney Porter was convicted of embezzlement or stealing from his employer, and sent to prison. Though a convicted criminal, his short life ended up having a happy ending—for it...
An idea prompts an action, which in turn suggests another idea, which leads to yet another action, and so on. That has been the pattern for as long as human beings have existed. The results of the pattern are known as consequences—some good...
On this 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, this is what we heard from our first reading: It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress…(Daniel: 12:1) And from the Gospel: “But in those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon...
I was exhausted. Thirty years ago, after having been coaxed into running for a political office, I had just spent a year campaigning. On election evening, the votes were tallied and the good people of the town where I lived rendered their collective...
Over 100 years ago there was an elderly widow in Scotland whose only son had gone to America to seek his fortune. He became very successful and prosperous. This didn’t help the widow, however; she was so poor the entire community had to support her...
