REVEREND JOSEPH M. ESPER is a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit and pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Anchorville, Michigan. He received his Master of Divinity degree from St. John's Provincial Seminary in Plymouth, Michigan. Through the years, Father Joe has lectured at Marian conferences, appeared on EWTN, spoken on Catholic radio, and written more than a dozen articles for This Rock, The Priest, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, and other publications. He is also the author of numerous books, including Saintly Solutions, More Saintly Solutions, After the Darkness, Lessons from the Lives of the Saints, and Why Is God Punishing Me? In addition to Amazon, many of his most recent books are available through Queenship Publishing.
Siena is a small town in Italy, and St. Catherine of Siena, who lived in the 14th century, had, even as a child, a profound love for Jesus and an intense yearning to be spiritually united with Him, a desire she expressed by constant acts of penance...
If you’ve been watching TV, reading the newspaper, or otherwise staying informed, you know that we’re in a fiercely-contested election year, and already a tidal wave of political criticisms, character assassinations, and fake news is swamping our...
Once there was a priest—we’ll call him Father Smith—who heard that the neighboring Catholic parish had a newly-painted mural dedicated to the souls in purgatory; the pastor there commissioned it as a way of reminding his parishioners to pray on a...
Early in the 20th century a married couple in Vermont bought a farm on the slope of a mountain in a remote, largely unpopulated area. A few weeks after moving in, they decided to go exploring, and walked down the hill behind their house, across the...
St. John Paul II had one of the longest reigns as Pope in Church history; when he was elected in 1978, he became not only the first Pope from Poland, but the first non-Italian Pope in over 450 years. Most experts agree he helped change the course of...
Someone once wrote a story about what might happen if Jesus were alive in today’s world, beginning His public ministry and seeking people to be His apostles. In this story Jesus decided that taking out ads in the “help wanted” section of the...
There was a famous American painter over 100 years ago named John Singer Sargent. He spent much of his life in London, England; there he became famous for painting flattering and heroic-looking portraits of important figures in English society...
About fifteen years ago I received some unexpected junk mail: a letter from a woman in California claiming to be a psychic, offering to provide me with valuable information in exchange for a mere $25 donation. She even provided a number...
