For many Christians, few things are more stressful than talking about the faith with others. This is especially true here in America, where we are taught from a young age that it’s not polite to talk about religion or politics in public. Telling...
Martin Scorsese’s recent movie Silence debuted last week to critical acclaim. The movie, based on the book by Shusaka Endo, is the fictional story of a Jesuit priest in the 17thcentury who travels to Japan to discover what happened to his...
A recent article in Psychology Today by Marty Nemko reflected on “Marriage’s Purpose.” In an era when so many marriages disintegrate, or don’t even happen, such a discussion is helpful. Why get married in the first place? What is the purpose of...
“So you think I’m a sinner?” I had just finished giving a parish talk to a group of about 40 people on the topic of mercy. In my talk I noted that everyone needs mercy, because we’re all sinners. I didn’t particularly dwell on the topic, but I...
Today is Ascension Thursday, although in many places it has been moved to Sunday to allow Catholics a day to complain about the state of the Church. A lot of people, including me, don’t like the fact that the celebration of the Ascension has been...
Today (April 25th) is the feast of St. Mark, disciple of St. Peter and author of the Gospel which bears his name. Tradition states that his Gospel – the shortest of the four – was based on the preaching of St. Peter. Although the Synoptic Gospels...
The Major League Baseball season began last week, and for the next seven months teams will compete to become this year’s World Series champion. I’ve always been a big fan of baseball (okay, I’ll be honest, I put the “fanatical” in fan when it...
My favorite saint is Francis of Assisi. Such a statement isn’t exactly novel – many people count the Poverello as their favorite. Why I am so attracted to him, however, might be a bit more unique. It is not his love for creation that most...
Recently, noted atheist provocateur Bill Maher was on Steven Colbert’s Late Show. While on the show, Colbert made a half-joking (and half-hearted) invitation for Maher to return to the Catholic Church. Maher’s response was...
This past Friday there was a terrorist attack in Paris coordinated by the Islamic State. As is usual in these cases, political and religious leaders around the world moved swiftly to condemn the attacks. One thing I noted among many of the...
Recently I’ve been doing some genealogy research into my family roots, and it has been fascinating to see where I come from. On both my mom’s and dad’s side my ancestors came to America before the Revolutionary War, some as far...
I’m a big fan of decentralization. It is the key ingredient that makes me excited about technologies like the Internet and Bitcoin, and it also is why I’m not a fan of big government solutions to just about anything. I believe that...
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