Although the small rural town of West Nickel Mines in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, might not be familiar to most, the tragic shooting of Amish schoolchildren that took place there in 2006 probably is. It is notably one of the saddest incidents in the whole history of school shootings in this country, but it is [...]
In 1910, a newspaper column carried the following story: Jimmy, age 10, was a devoted brother to his sister, age 6. He nearly panicked when his sister fell off her bicycle and cut a large artery in her leg. The bleeding was profuse, and by the time a doctor arrived at the scene, the [...]
A few years ago I met a woman named Carolyn who, with her husband, had joined their church’s prison ministry team and were volunteering at a local prison. We were attending the same seminar where, in small group sharing, she told a riveting story. I honestly don’t recall any other details of the seminar [...]
[This article follows from the email newsletter of June 13, 2021, “An Astonishing Eucharistic Scene in a Secular Movie”.] The 1984 movie, Places in the Heart is one of the most moving tales of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity in modern film. Sally Field fittingly won the Academy Award for Best [...]
If you page through a traditional Catholic hymnbook you will eventually come across the name of Frederick William Faber (1814-1863) in the composer credits at the bottom of a given hymn. That would be Father Frederick Faber, English Catholic priest, convert to Catholicism, and composer of hymns extraordinaires. Fr. Faber made some of the [...]
Arguably history’s most beloved and fascinating saint, we sometimes forget that Joan of Arc was not a legend. She was a real person with a real calling from God to do something heroic for Christ’s Kingdom. But Joan didn’t take any up her sword on her own initiative. She was not a political phenomenon [...]
A few years ago I had the privilege of standing in the sacristy of a Ukrainian church watching a priest friend of mine prepare for Mass. The wonderful liturgies of the Church’s eastern rites (the Byzantine, Maronite, Ukrainian and others) express a richness and complexity of worship that contrasts with the simplicity of the [...]
It is impossible to know from external appearances what kinds of interior burdens people carry with them throughout life. In fact, if we knew the inside story of most people’s lives, we would gain a deep reverence for them and a respect for their perseverance through the difficulties that only they have experienced and [...]
The Church has always proclaimed the Cross of Christ as the mystical center of everything that exists. It is the truth of everything in the created world, the purification of the sins of all mankind, and the force of grace that conquers all evil. The Cross is easy to find, though not easy to [...]
“The prosperity of a nation is everyone’s responsibility.” ~Chinese proverb Those who have received the email newsletter of the same title are already familiar with the story of Mr. Chen. Those who have not read the newsletter can access the file in the Email Newsletter Archives of this site. If you’d like to read [...]