Spirituality

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. (Jn. 11:17) The first time we are introduced to the character Martha in the Gospels, Scripture paints a rather ugly portrait of a woman disgruntled by her sister Mary’s failure to help in the kitchen, seemingly env...

God has left us from Paradise three things: the stars, the flowers and the eyes of a child… That is a quote from a 1908 book titled The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by Nicholas Guir. The author wrote that flowers have a place entirely their own in God’s creation: In the splendor of their colors, in th...

Women think that they are making ideals of men. What they are making of us are false idols merely. You made your false idol of me, and I had not the courage to come down, show you my wounds, tell you my weaknesses. I was afraid that I might lose your love, as I have lost it now.  — Oscar Wilde, An I...

If we seek to learn more about the mother of Jesus, then perhaps the place to begin is by taking a closer look at the family from which she came. Unfortunately, we have almost no information about the parents of our Blessed Mother Mary. In fact, any “historical” information we have comes from a non-...

Have you noticed that in a garden it is easier to experience God than nearly anywhere else? Praying while sitting in, looking at, or working in a garden is a direct connection to our Creator. Why is that? I suspect it’s because it’s a return to the Garden of Eden. The close relationship that God int...

There’s a phrase that changed the way I pray, the way I give, and honestly, the way I look at a map. Mission ad gentes. It’s Latin for “mission to the nations,” or “mission to the peoples.” This little phrase carries the heartbeat of the Church, the last words Jesus spoke before He ascended into hea...

When I was 23 years old, I was stationed with the Navy in England. I had finished a very successful first tour at a major intelligence agency Stateside and was sent overseas to help bring a new station online. From the outside, I had everything going for me. Internally, I was crumbling. I used all m...

I live in a sunny part of the world where many American baseball teams come for spring training. These pre-game games are relaxing, enjoyable, and, for spectators such as me, an inexpensive way to connect with family and friends. Others attend the same spring-training events and bring a wholly diffe...

This Sunday, Jesus teaches about the kingdom of heaven in parables that are so clear, even the apostles understand them. Gospel (Read Mt. 13:44-52) The Gospel reading gives us another cluster of parables about the kingdom of heaven, adding to an unusually high number in just one chapter.  The first...

Every championship has a moment when the game seems to slip away. It usually isn’t obvious at first. The players are still in position. The tactics haven’t changed. The scoreline may even remain close. Yet something subtle begins to happen. Patience gives way to urgency. The carefully rehearsed syst...

From Image to Icon, Escaping the Temptation of the Idol A recent Sunday Collect beautifully summarizes one of the deepest challenges of the Christian life: “Listen, O God, to our prayers, and grant that, by imitating the Passion of your Son, we may bear our daily cross with serene courage. Through C...

On December 1, 2025, Pope Leo XIV knelt in Annaya, Lebanon, under an arch of stone, facing the carved cedar tomb of St. Charbel Makhlouf. Pope Leo gazed at the image of the saint displayed above the tomb—a quiet, white-bearded religious priest and hermit robed in black. Charbel (Sharbel) Makhlouf wa...