This weekend members of a small faith-based community called Regnum Christi are at Saint Charles Parish to help cultivate the very essence of our religious belief, which we commemorate during the annual Triduum rituals.  It is the third consecutive year that this group whose members range from infant to elder, though mostly families with school-aged […]

“If only you, Christians, acted more like your Christ the whole world would want to join you.”  It is reported that Mohandas Gandhi used these or similar words when conversing about Jesus with a western missionary serving in India.  The beloved mahatma’s critique that our actions are far from The One we claim to follow […]

Leonard Sax, MD, PhD, in his book, The Collapse of Parenting, suggests that the top indicator for happiness among humans is the personality trait of conscientiousness.  More than wealth or health, fame or fortune, power or prestige, brilliance or beauty, happiness—the one thing we desire most—is found in people who are conscientious, a characteristic that […]

If you were once a little left-handed pupil writing schoolwork at your desk, an insistent nun carrying a large ruler may have smacked your hand.  That’s because left-handedness is sinister; the Latin “sinestra” means left or left-handed.  It evolved to mean “evil” or “unlucky.”  Being a southpaw was considered by some, even in the last […]

When I was a young priest, I served as Vocation Director for my diocese.  During that time, I was struck by the fact that my brother priests held varying ecclesial views that aligned us with, or separated us from, each other and, subsequently, made vocation work more challenging.  I wrote the following poem at that […]

Catholics are not angry at the Catholic Church that was established by Jesus Christ.  They are angry at the corporate bureaucratic institutional Catholic Church that keeps redirecting it.  Perhaps we can transform our anger by joining Pope Francis who is leading us to restore the beauty of the Church in Christ, even when it’s not […]

Potholes can do a lot of damage to cars: flat tires, bent rims, steering misalignment, problems to suspension systems, shocks, struts, undercarriages—even engines.  When dodging potholes in the daily commute, we must also dodge other cars that are dodging other potholes in the same vicinity.  More than an annoyance, the holes in the road are […]

Among the Catholic Church’s faults—I admit we’ve got a boatload of them—is that we have a problem keeping important things important and unimportant things unimportant.  This was Jesus’ constant challenge to church leaders in His time, too.  The fact that we haven’t gotten much better at it 2,000 years later brings sadness, disgust, and embarrassment […]

Catholic School education in the northland is accessible and affordable.  At Saint Charles Borromeo Academy, it is also classical and customized. For the past five months, pastors from the twelve Kansas City Northland Catholic parishes in Platte and Clay Counties have been meeting to discuss the important task we bear of educating children in the […]

Friends of mine are parents to five teenagers.  When they were five infants, toddlers, and tykes, they were cute, fun, and adorable—also a handful.  These parents, who have a clear and unified sense of God and faith, found it easy and enjoyable to teach their little kids about the Lord, right versus wrong, and making […]