Listening to others is fast becoming a lost art. The most common sign of this is refusal to listen to views that oppose our own, but recent years have revealed a more serious sign—demanding that others refrain from listening to...
This is a refrain repeated several times in the recitation of Psalm 95: “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Today, our Church desires to have us focus on the condition of our heart regarding God’s plan of love and joy for all...
The readings from 1 Kings are one of my favorites because it takes me back to my senior year in high school. I went on a retreat and had what I would call my first real experience of the presence of God. I was sitting out in the woods that...
I love to watch the Nature channel on TV. That’s when I wonder how many scientists can claim that there is no God guiding His creatures to their designated purpose according to His divine plan. How can order and purpose result from randomness...
The 19th century English novelist, William Thackeray, once noted that “Mother is the name for God on the lips and in the hearts of little children.” From the moment of our birth, mothers are “for us” in ways too numerous to...
The first part of this essay noted the reading and listening deficit in America and identified its causes as the brevity and rapid pace of modern communication and the widespread habit of closing our minds to ideas other than our own. It also...
In a recent essay I chastised the Florida Bishops Conference for adding a condemnation of contraception to their condemnation of abortion. My view was that the addition weakened their argument with many Catholics and even more non-Catholics. Three...
In the Book of Exodus, we read of the Israelites departure from Egypt and of their miraculous deliverance by God through Moses. As part of that story, we read of the time when Moses went up on Mount Sinai and was given the Ten Commandments. He...
