A rhetorical question asks, “If being Catholic were a crime, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”  It is an alarming question until we remember that being convicted is exactly what we want to have happen at the Pearly Gates, and…

It’s that time of year again, autumn and the season for pie, the delicious time of year when I begin to crave warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream melting on top, piping hot turkey pot pie with lots of…

I love hiking in New England, especially in the fall.  Enormous sugar maples, towering pines, granite cliffs, sandy beaches, and scenic vistas dot the entire region.  I love the quixotic rock walls that crisscross nearly every landscape, plunging off even…

A hint of pink silhouettes the eastern horizon as hungry cries drift into my consciousness from the crib. Early morning wake-up calls are common when you have a baby, reason enough to pull a pillow over your head, but there…

When I teach spelling to my home-schooled kids, I always begin by presenting them with a basic spelling rule with a list of examples.  For instance, the basic rule of making words plural is to add an ’s.’  Words like…

Ah, summertime.  The season of warmth and outdoor activities.  It is a time for families to re-connect after months of school-driven schedules, a time for everyone to enjoy a different pace of life.  Barbeques.  Bike rides.  Gardening.  Afternoons at the…

I happened across a quote the other day that captures perfectly my experiences of fatherhood. The quote is from a small book titled, Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love, by Fr. Daniel Homan and Lonni Collins Pratt. In describing a friend…

Heading out for an all day, multi-family excursion to the beach, I tossed a bottle of sunscreen to the back of the van and told the kids to lather up.  Twelve hours later my nine-year-old was crying in pain as…

As we approach the celebration of Pentecost we pause to consider the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit.  The First Person of the Trinity is God the Father.  Known as the Creator of the universe, He is…

Maybe it's just me, but in our modern age family life seems to have been thrown into the back seat of a fast-moving minivan.  Parents and kids alike are living as though life were a drag race, speeding past historical…