Following the West’s penchant for duality, life can easily be divided into two parts. The first part is being born, maturing, getting settled in a profession and getting married and raising a family. During the second half of anyone’s life there is...
I am sorry to say that the Archdiocese of Chicago lost one of its best deacons this week. My dear friend and brother in the stole, Deacon Peter Hajdu died where we knew he would be, in service to his church. Deacon Peter and his wife Melissa were in...
Those who recently lost a loved one to a premature or sudden death might wonder: Where was Elijah? Or where was Jesus when we were trying the keep our loved one from being yanked away from our affection? This feeling, a mixture of anger and dismay...
In the First Book of Kings (17:17-24) and the Gospel of Luke (7:11-17), we hear the stories of two mothers, who were both widows, losing their only son. In both stories, the young men were raised from the dead, restored to life and returned to their...
I love watches. I must have over 30 watches. Ever since my grandfather taught me to tell time when I was seven years old I have loved keeping time. My mother taught me to be punctual for appointments and dates. I was always early and spent a good...
German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche made quite a stir in the late 19th century when he informed the world, God is dead! Most people have misunderstood what he meant. He wasn’t saying that God had lived then died. Nietzsche meant that He was...
The readings for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time deal with topics we Americans, and perhaps people everywhere, would rather avoid. The readings deal with sickness and death. We do our best to avoid sickness and death. That’s reasonable. But...
When I was just a small boy, I remember the time my family returned late from an outing, only to find police cars in front of our home. A burglar was reported entering through the second story. After the situation seemed clear, my parents left me...
