Seeds of Faith

Thirty years ago this November, the Berlin Wall tumbled down and thousands of East Germans celebrated their new freedom.  Back home, a local grocery chain later sold fragments of the wall, and my dad purchased one of them for me as a…

One of my fondest memories of the last few years of my maternal grandmother’s life involves sacred art and our shared Catholic faith.  Three years before she died, the Cincinnati Museum Center in 2004 hosted a special traveling exhibit…

Summer offers us the extra time to appreciate God’s creation and presence — in nature, in the universe, and within our churches.  Recently, my family and I traveled to rural southeastern Ohio, far away from the bright city lights where we…

Near the end of May, many of our communities will host Memorial Day parades and solemn ceremonies honoring those who died while serving in our nation’s armed forces. Veterans — young and old — will be visible to all of us as they pay…

Obeying the Third Commandment and its call to keep the Sabbath is an important part of our identity.  Yet we also know that, in our increasingly secularized world, the numbers of those who attend religious services regularly is declining.…

He’s the silent saint we associate with Christmas. The Gospels contain no words from him but instead offer us examples of his unfailing devotion as a man of God, a faithful husband, and a loving father.  In the wake of the recent Church…

I usually don’t turn to the last page of a book and read the ending before I read anything else. But this time I did. Here is what I found:  There will be no faith in heaven, for we will already see; there will be no hope in heaven, for we…

We could say that the first word of the New Testament is “be joyful,” “be happy,” in other words, “joy.” This is the true meaning of Christmas: God is near us, so near that he became a child. — Pope Benedict XVI  That quote, printed in red…

This Thanksgiving, may we be more intentionally grateful for the many excellent clergy and religious that God has given the Church.  Particularly this year, we need to be thinking of those who answered God’s call and are serving with…

In a rural area of Wisconsin Mary appeared to a 28-year-old woman named Adele Brise 159 years ago this month.  Today the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wisconsin, occupies the location of the apparition. It’s the only…