Wanda Bencke wrote the poem, “My First Christmas in Heaven,” after her child died on Christmas Day, 1997. It has helped millions of people who have lost loved ones during the holiday season to deal with sadness and emptiness that overtakes them while the world celebrates. Here are her words: I see the countless Christmas […]
When growing up, I had lots of cousins. There were about fifty of us on my father’s side of the family. Jimmy was five or six years older than me; I was close with his sister, Jeanne, who was more my age. He had three older brothers and, like them, was well rounded, handsome, and […]
Advent is a time to believe in impossible things. Prophetic writers foretell of a virgin birth, and scriptural passages that dominate our liturgical gatherings this month offer scenes in which wolf and lamb, lion and goat, leopard and calf coexist in peace. Though it is not impossible to conceive of a world where predator and […]
Advent means the Coming or Arrival. Each year Christians join in a four-week, end of calendar, spiritual journey. But it is a little difficult for us to comprehend exactly what is coming, whether it comes now, or only at the journey’s end. I’ll start with the coming of light that dispels the darkness of suffering […]
This thanksgiving weekend marked a milestone in the life of Saint Therese Little Flower Parish in Kansas City: our one hundredth anniversary. The rock band, Five for Fighting, in their turn-of-the-century hit song, 100 Years, sang “I’m ninety-nine for a moment and dying for just one more moment, but I’m moving on and counting the […]
In Bob Dylan’s pensive ballad, “Not Dark Yet,” he reflects upon a once great relationship that is not quite over and, at the same time, muses about the end of life or our relationship with human existence. He suggests that, even at the tail end or waning moments, we can do things to save ourselves […]
Communication is, and probably always will be, the Achilles heel of healthy relationships. Healthy communication takes work, patience, and continual attention. Each November as Thanksgiving gatherings inaugurate the holiday season, numerous families are concerned with relationships that are strained and interactions that could be explosive. Some who are on different sides of the political spectrum […]
In this month of Thanksgiving and table fellowship, many people struggle to buy groceries while government cutbacks to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) have limited food aid to low-income citizens and their families. As happens more than we want, while political partisans point fingers and blame those in rival camps, people of goodwill step […]
Nathan Soderblom once stated, “Saints are people who make it a little bit easier for the rest of us to be good.” They are light bearers, they are trail angels, they are people with rough edges like everyone else but who have somehow remained focused on God and our destiny toward a better existence. Or […]
Catholic bishops throughout the world make “ad limina” visits to Rome every five to ten years. These periodic trips bring them to the threshold or entryway, as the Latin word implies. “Ad limina” refers more specifically to the tomb, meaning the crypt of Saint Peter at the base of the Vatican’s high altar and that […]
UPON THIS ROCK 