During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, jesters were employed by monarchs and noblemen to help them pass the time away. By their use of song, music, storytelling, acrobatics, juggling, jokes, and magic tricks, they assumed the role of poking fun at...
Let me try something different this time; we shall consider what the Church feeds us from the Table of God’s Word as a delicious and nourishing dish for us to enjoy for our physical and spiritual well-being. These are the ingredients: Let whoever is...
Our first reading for this Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time says, “God did not make death — He fashioned all things that they might have being.” (Wisdom 1:13-14) Life is a free gift given to us by our Creator God; a gift to be enjoyed...
Ever since the killing of seventeen people at a Florida high school on Ash Wednesday, the media have selected a handful of students who supposedly represent the anti-gun views of not only a majority of their classmates but also a majority of...
The classic 19th century novel Quo Vadis, which was later made into a movie in 1951 and again in 2001, tells how the early Church slowly took root and began growing in Rome, in spite of being declared illegal and sometimes facing persecution by the...
Have you noticed? If it is not a deranged man massacring innocent people at a concert or at a Sunday religious service, it is the real possibility of a global war breaking out at any moment, or the threat of another terrorist attack. There seems to...
In ancient Greece a famous philosopher visited a certain city and began speaking in the public forum. A wealthy man was entertaining friends, and he and his guests heard the philosopher was in their city. As a joke, the host ordered one of his...
Catholic journalist Joe Sobran, who has been called one of the best writers of our time, died on September 30, 2010 in Fairfax, Virginia from complication of diabetes. He was just 64. Unlike the other two members of my triad of writing influences, I...
