Columns
The Paschal hope of Ordinary Time
A number of springs ago, I came to the Easter Vigil Mass with the joyous anticipation of Easter muted a bit.
Atheists, dark nights, Good Friday and revelation
The classical atheistic thinkers of the Enlightenment, philosophers such as Frederick Nietzsche and Ludwig Feuerbach, taught that all religious experience is simply human projection.
He is risen! Alleluia, Alleluia!
2026 Easter message from Bishop James P. Powers
Mini-ministry: St. Patrick parishioners inspired food swap
A friendly gesture by a couple of neighbors of bringing over a few bags of slightly fading vegetables, and then my swapping some back, has become a full-fledged food mini-ministry.
Thanks, Dad, for Ordinary Times
Not long ago, I was sorting through some of my dad’s old papers and I came across a candy wrapper and a Father’s Day card tucked into an envelope that bore a March 2001 postmark from Rome.
On hiding the ugly
Following a severe case of COVID last summer, I developed a bald spot. As with any flaw, I spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to hide it; AI tells me it could take a year for my hair to grow back. So I fuss and rearrange things and impatiently wait.
Do you really believe God loves you?
If you’re like me, you were impressed by the athletes of the Milan-Cortina Olympics. In them we witnessed both the rewards of hard work and the traumatizing effects of extreme expectation.
Questions and answers in Ordinary Time
“Will this be on the exam?” Anyone who is a teacher will recognize this question as one that erupts like clockwork when midterm or final exam season rolls around.
A vocational process: Hear, receive, respond, renew, repeat
During Catholic Schools Week, my three youngest children, middle school students at St. Francis de Sales School in Spooner, were given a talk on vocations by Fr. Papi Yeruva Reddy.