“I like you better without your beretta,” said James Bond to his love interest after meeting her for the second time.  Had she been wearing some sort of French hat when they first met?  No, she had been wearing a gun.  James Bond had spied the woman’s Beretta handgun under her dress.  At their second […]

In this challenging time God has chosen for us to live in, we need all the spiritual help we can get. Our Lady has been given to us as a model, guide, and helper. She, in turn, has given us her Holy Rosary as lifeline, a weapon, and a consolation. If we choose to pray […]

Saint Pontian, who became pope in 230 AD, and Saint Hippolytus, a prominent theologian and priest, are remembered for their significant roles in the early Church and their steadfast witness to the faith. Their lives intersected during a tumultuous period of Christian persecution. Pontian was elected pope during a time of intense persecution under the […]

It was seven years into my marriage and five years into being a father that I realized I didn’t know what I was doing (that’s putting it mildly). A year prior to being married, I had surrendered my life to Our Lord Jesus. Nevertheless, I worked around the clock to impress my employer while attempting […]

You fool; this night your life will be demanded of you. Jesus proclaimed these words in the parable of the rich man in Luke 12:13-21. This man had received a bountiful harvest, and all he did was tear down his old barns and build larger ones to store his surplus wealth. In our age of […]

Envy is the second of the Deadly Sins.  It is particularly deadly because it is linked with pride, ranked first among the Deadly Sins.  Envy is sorrow at another’s good fortune.  A proud person cannot bear the fact that someone else is better that he is in some way.  Envy flows from pride.  A person […]

St. Jane Frances de Chantal was born on January 28, 1572, in Dijon, France, into a noble family. Her early life was marked by both privilege and deep faith. At the age of 20, she married Christopher de Chantal, and together they had six children. Her life as a wife and mother was filled with […]

The US Catholic Church is facing an urgent challenge: the number of priests is declining at an alarming rate. The number of active priests in the US has plummeted from 58,000 in 1970 to fewer than 35,000 today, even as the Catholic population grew by 20 million. At the current rate, by 2030 some areas […]

There’s an old saying—the saints we rely upon find us. For me that was St. Charbel. In St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, in a remote corner behind the altar, there’s a relic of his. Whenever I’m there, I pay a visit to the relic and ask for his intercession. St. Charbel’s life speaks to […]

The life and Essays of Michel de Montaigne, the sixteenth-century French Catholic philosopher, reveal how accepting the will of God helps a person face the overwhelming fear of mortality; in other words, they help us to embrace death.  Montaigne was neither saint, priest, nor monk, but a worldly man who lived in a secular time […]