A few years ago, I was at a Mass where a priest-friend of mine was being installed as the new pastor of a parish.  Before we began, a middle-aged woman came into the sacristy and…

Merry Christmas! - it's amazing the joy that simply saying those two words can bring.  But what does that one word, Joy, really mean?  For most of us, our Christmas memories, experiences, or expectations are…

Some years ago, I remember going out to dinner with my Mom and Dad on a Saturday Night after Mass.  In a quick move, I grabbed the check from the waiter to pay for the…

Growing up, my Jewish friends and I would invariably get into the annual "Who's got the Better Holiday" competition between Hanukkah and Christmas around this time.  They would share extraordinary stories of how, during the…

Forecasts, predictions, prophecies.  We can treat all of those words as basically the same things - telling us what will happen.  The meteorologist on the weather channel gives us the 7-day forecast of temperatures, the…

While it may have been used before, the phrase "too big to fail" wasn't as familiar to most individuals until 2007-2008.  That's when the Banks in the United States and around the world found themselves…

"Near Death Experiences." Those three words can generate tremendous interest from the most devout of believers to the greatest skeptics.  This past month, there was some extensive coverage of this phenomenon of Near Death Experiences…

“In America, each generation has tried to have a better life than their parents, with a better living standard, better homes, a better education, and so on.  How likely do you think it is that…