When I taught freshman composition, I called one lesson, "Wax on, Wax off." ...
When I'm discouraged, I begin to believe that my actions don't matter and that the real drama of life is taking place...
She was a slip of a girl. Five years old on her last birthday; long, soft brown hair and startlingly clear blue eyes. She was full of energy and creative fun, but she...
I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick...
C. S. Lewis once advised his godchild, Lucy Barfield, about life. "Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. (1) Things we ought to do; (2) Things we've got to do; ...
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection...
One Sunday after church, needing milk, I went into Safeway. My new prescription sunglasses were there in my blue jacket going in...
More than 10 years ago, before U-2s and Gary Powers, my friend Griff was one of six fliers chosen to fly secret reconnaissance missions over Russia and China. Griff was one tough guy. Earlier,...
"Why can't you write something that a lot of people would like?" That was Regina O'Connor's question to her daughter, Flannery, well after her daughter had published a groundbreaking novel, Wise...
On a recent pilgrimage to New York, the Ground Zero sprawled out before us was oddly anticlimactic. Oft-photographed skeletal structures were gone. Our view, distant and oblique, was—as the...
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things unto His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God, rose from supper, and laid aside His...
Arthur Ashe was the first African American to win national and international tennis tournaments. His powerful ground strokes and accurate serves produced singles victories in the United States and...
Lord, between yesterday and tomorrow, ...
How does what you do relate to who you are? If the culture devalues your vocation, do you give less effort? Who tells you who you are? Which voices are loudest? Can God...
Let's face it, at one time or another we all believe we don't measure up—we fall short of what we imagine others expect or accomplish. Perhaps we even overhear someone say, "That person...
There is something beautiful in work well and precisely done. It is a participation in the activity of God, who makes all things well and wisely, beautiful to the last detail. Jean Vanier ...
"There was a man who had two sons . . ." So begins one of the New Testament's most familiar parables. And the first eight words alone relate to almost anyone. Most of...
Fr. Bill Wilson, a priest from California, trained to be a bishop through the finest education the Roman church offered and during the process became an alcoholic. He attended Vatican II and was...
The famous pianist Paderewski once was asked to name the most important event in his life. "Whatever I happen to be doing at the moment is the most important," he said. "Whether playing...
Two women; two friends; two life stories of deep wounds and profound loss. The first, a minivan-driving, kid-shuttling, suburban mom of two—and rape survivor struggling to return life to some...
