There’s nothing quite like a good Chuck Norris joke. A while back, my family went through a streak of sharing one-liners and memes heralding the prowess of Norris, now 80 years old. It was unbeatable humor even for the siblings who couldn’t tell you what he did before the turn of the century.

There is something about water that always feels like “home” to me. Growing up in Michigan – the Great Lake State – I spent countless summer days at grandparents’ cottages on inland lakes, but it was the big waters of Lakes Michigan and Huron that best defined where I came from.

On Ash Wednesday, I attended the St. Francis de Sales School Mass in Spooner. Our pastor, Fr. Phil Juza, asked the students to answer a question – if Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas, what is Lent a time of preparation for?

There is something about witnessing a grown man’s tears. Even a single escaped droplet traces his cheek like an exclamation point, deeply impressing whatever circumstances or moral-of-the-story that brought him to the verge of choked emotion.

Vocations Director for the Diocese of Superior Fr. Thomas Thompson regretted having to admit that some people have told him they do not like praying the diocesan prayer for vocations, in particular the line, “Bless our families, bless our children – and choose from our homes those needed for your work.”

“Retreat” is one of those words in the English language that has a number of meanings – defined by words associated with war, retirement, seclusion and insanity.