Tag: Hope

The Change We Hope For

Simple questions stem from what Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew (5:17-37): Are we pleased with the way the situation is in our home? In our village/town/city? With the way the Government is run? Are we pleased with the way children are...

Never Give Up!

Winston Churchill wrote:  “Never give up!  Never give in!  Never, Never, Never, Never—-in anything great or small, large or petty—-never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” Father Patrick...

In Christ, We are Fully Alive

A Catholic priest in Texas named Father Paul served as a prison chaplain, and one year on Easter Sunday he said Mass for the Catholic inmates there. One of the prisoners there—we’ll call him Kevin—had been incarcerated for sixteen years, but was...

The Womb of My Catholic Imagination

The imagination is the eye of the soul. –Joseph Joubert I think Catholic writers have a distinct advantage over atheists or people of other faiths. This is true because the Catholic Church has a 2000-year history that transcends the material...

Jesus Rejoices in the People We Will Become

Every day the media bring into our living rooms immediate images of harrowing pain, hardships and death. They are images of events close to us or from faraway lands: from Iraq to Afghanistan, from Syria to Yemen and several troubled spots in Africa...

Our Reasons for Hope

Back in the 1870s, at a mental institution near Boston, a young girl known as “Little Annie” was locked up in a cage down in the basement. Not only was she partially blind as a result of an infection, but the doctors had declared her to be...

Serendipity and the Past as Prologue

Last year, in a moment just dripping with delicious irony, I accidentally discovered Pagan Kennedy’s article on How to Cultivate the Art of Serendipity. Kennedy piqued my curiosity in detailing stories like those of an inventor, named Steve...

Real Men Have Chests

Ireland has experienced many chances since I first visited in 1991. Its entry into the European Union in 1973 unleashed a high tech prosperity that has given the country its 41st shade of green. It has not been without cost. Over the years, Irish...