I’ve long been a spectator of hockey and football. With hockey, the ability to drive a puck past a goaltender into a 6-foot-wide net defines victory; it makes the difference between winning and losing. With football, while...
In an episode of the television show, Everybody Loves Raymond, Debra asks Raymond why he doesn’t go to church. His response: “I don’t know. Maybe it is because of the kneeling. You know I have bad knees.” Eventually, however...
During the first four centuries of the Church, many heresies developed regarding Jesus Christ. Finally, at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D., the bishops, united with the Pope, clarified the matter: “We teach…one and the same Christ...
The Gospel passage for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (Luke 24:46-53) completes the Gospel of Luke. From the perspective of the disciples, it was the end of their course, semester, and training with the Master. And these were the final...
In the final scene of the 1998 film, Saving Private Ryan, a now old Private James Francis Ryan is found kneeling among thousands of white crosses at the American Cemetery in Normandy. At the grave of Captain John H. Miller, whose mission was to...
A friend once told me of being invited to the White House. As part of a group that would have an audience with the president, his invitation also included specific protocols that would need to be followed. The list included items such as when and...
One evening, while teaching a group of college students, I explored an idea set forth by the 18th-century Scottish philosopher, Adam Smith. In his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), Smith noted that each of...
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...
