text Robbing Peter to Pay Paul There is an assumption that the phrase, “Robbing Peter to pay Paul,” is…
text Third Sunday of Lent: Water of Life This Sunday appears to be unprecedented in the churches of the Archdiocese of Chicago and elsewhere…
text “Do not harden your hearts.” Reaching beyond the confines of our comfort zones becomes the theme of today…
text Second Sunday of Lent: Light in the Darkness In years to come, the spring of this year is more likely to be remembered for the outbreak of the…
text “Before enlightenment, the laundry. After enlightenment, the laundry.” Waiting patiently in line at the local grocery store, I was fascinated with…
text First Sunday of Lent: Getting Clear Love in the Time of Cholera, the great novel by Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez,…
text “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Fat chance that any of us will escape from being drawn into temptation, but…
text “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Be careful or soon we will live blind and toothless." A few years ago, as I was preparing to eat my delicious Indian meal at the…
text “Go to heaven for the climate. Go to hell for the company.” Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died on April 21, 1910…
text “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” Searching for memorable images that would capture the imaginations of his…
text “The Fourth Joyful Mystery: The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.” Growing up in the shadow of the third Joyful Mystery, the Church of the…
text “Discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary: the call to discipleship.” Perhaps it is time to re-imagine the significance of our personal call to…
text “I would like to offer you a rational explanation, but I can’t figure it out.” The airline pilot’s words were not that comforting, especially since we had…
text “No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.” It was while I was doing the dishes that I first noticed the sign above the…
text “Jesus: Mender of Broken Dreams.” As I arrived at the hospital, I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness. Before…
text “A cup of Christmas tea: Preparing for the New Year.” Some years ago, I received a copy of Tom Hegg’s little book entitled: A Cup…
text “Love at first sight: the risk of faith.” Amid the hype of “Jingle Bell Rock” and clever sales pitches encouraging us…
text “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” With the recent visit of Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, to Auschwitz,…
text Teaching morals and values to teenagers an opinion piece published in the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest
text “Is there room for laughter during Advent?” The older woman was in her late eighties and suffered from severe diabetes…
text “Advent: Déjà vu all over again.” Yogi Berra, former catcher for the New York Yankees, was known as the Master…
text “Precious Lord Take My Hand.” The grocery store wasn’t all that busy when I shopped for a few items…
text “If it were not for hope, the heart would break.” Walking through Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul, I came across a tombstone…
text “Encounters with everyday annunciations: Discovering God in unusual places.” In my bedroom hangs a replica of Fra Angelico’s famous painting of the …
text “Come to me, all you that are weary, and I will give you rest.” Soul searching moments can take us by surprise and, with the grace of God,…
