In a world where most entertainment and humor have become coarsened, it’s nice to know that not all humor is base. The principle of intelligent humor is one of our topics here at Sacred Windows, and thankfully, there is much of it out there, even if we sometimes have to go looking for it. [...]
On a whirlwind trip to Europe after graduation from college, a friend of mine introduced me to a Spanish kid named Tico. I asked why his friends called him Tico, and he said – completely deadpan – that he started using a nickname after the third time he got beaten up for his real [...]
The Second Book of Maccabees, Chapter 7, recounts the horrific story of the Jewish mother who was forced to watch the killing of her seven sons during the persecution of the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 BC). This evil military general inherited a portion of Alexander the Great's empire and set about forcing everyone [...]
The architects and stone masons who built the great medieval Gothic cathedrals would not have shared the opinion of the current Jesuit General that the devil is just a figment of our imagination. (That whirring sound you hear is the Jesuits’ founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, spinning in his grave.) No, the medieval craftsmen [...]
My excellent Latin teacher in college caught me by surprise one day. I thought I’d impress him with my deep culture by telling him how much I liked listening to the Ave Maria in Latin. He responded, “Oh really? Which one?” (There I was – busted – I didn’t know there was more than [...]
One day in a big city, the managers of a supermarket looked at their profit-loss sheets and discovered that they were losing business to their local competitors. They knew they had to figure out some way to generate more interest in the store and increase sales. They settled on the idea of holding a [...]
Have you ever found yourself so transfixed by the beauty of something that you become totally absorbed in it, or found yourself listening to a single piece of music over and over because it speaks so deeply to your heart and soul? That is what happens to me each time I listen to the [...]
I’m sure that the 19th century English hymn writer, Frances Havergal, never imagined her unassuming hymn, “Take My Life and Let It Be” (1874), would be brought out of its obscurity and made into an enchanting devotional piece nearly 150 years after she wrote it. The poetry is simple, and the traditional hymn tune [...]
Brother Reginald, the personal assistant to St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1275), once spied the great theologian in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. According to Brother Reginald’s account, Thomas was agonizing over whether he had written accurately of the central mystery of our faith, the Eucharist, and was presenting his concerns to the Lord. At that [...]
(Click on images to enlarge) 112 feet Cochabamba, Bolivia – Cristo de la Concordia (Christ of Peace) Aerial Footage (0:51) 108 feet Świebodzin, Western Poland – Christ the King Aerial Footage (2:01) 105 feet [...]