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.
Once there was a little girl named Marcie who had a very strange and unusual reaction to Christmas: she didn’t like to receive Christmas presents. Every year when it was time to unwrap the presents under the tree, she would go to her room and wait...
We live in an age of instant communication. Because of satellites orbiting the earth, we can place a phone call to someone on the other side of the world in a matter of seconds; also, our smartphones allow us to speak to someone, text, or pass along...
Just over two months ago, on October 7, the nation of Israel was surprised by a number of deadly, vicious, and unjustified terror attacks launched from the Palestinian city of Gaza; many Israeli civilians—innocent men, women, and children—were...
About 120 years ago, a woman entered a New York City department store during a heavy storm, wet and disheveled from the weather. Because business was slow that day, the sales clerks had gathered together and were talking baseball, even though there...
It’s very easy for persons in positions of authority to let their sense of importance go to their heads. The story is told of the captain of a battleship whose warship was on naval maneuvers one foggy night. A lookout reported a light in the...
There have been some rather strange laws passed in different cities and states during our nation’s history. For instance, at one time in Maryland it was illegal to hold your nose closed for longer than a second. In North Carolina it was forbidden to...
I’d imagine that a pet peeve of most organizers of wedding receptions is invited guests who do not respond to invitations one way or another—especially if they then show up anyway for the celebration. Such invitations usually say RSVP—the...
Once upon a time there were three friends—Ralph, Reuben, and Roger—down on their luck and searching for work, but without success. Then they finally got very lucky: a wealthy landowner hired them to live on and take care of his large apple orchard...
