Columns

As September dawned, eyes turned to Rome with joy to celebrate the canonizations of two young men – Ss. Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis. In a particular way, many hoped that the holy lives of these two new saints would have a special appeal to young people who would see in them examples of lives well and faithfully lived.

No amount of preaching shapes a soul as much as seeing someone living an honest life. If that’s true, and it is, then no marriage course is ever as powerful to teach about marriage as is the witness of a good marriage.

Earlier this month – during the Fourth of July weekend – I saw the first Halloween displays in the store. I expected that the Halloween blitz would be coming soon. Yet, in my mind, and according to my calendar, July, August and most of September is still summer!

Unbeknownst to me, when I changed my calendar to August, I entered “National Back to School Month.” As fond as I am of new school supplies and the scent of new books, not even I knew that this is celebrated for an entire month.

The monks of Saint Benedict Abbey bow during a service at the chapel. The monks pray the Divine Office [...]

The petals were dusty yellow and flecked with white. They emerged with timid strength from a nearly invisible crack in the blacktop of a nondescript driveway. In the midst of the dark pavement, a spunky petunia bloomed.

Independence is on my mind as we celebrate Independence Day, recalling that time when our founders deemed it “necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another.”