Our help and our shield

Psalm 33: 16-22 “A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save. Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast …

The spirit of Thomas Becket

Today, Dec. 29th, marks the 847th anniversary of the death of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, protector of the Church, martyr for the faith and saint. The feast day of St. Thomas Becket is worthy of remembrance in its own right, but in today's atmosphere of American politics and the mix of Church and political …

2018: The choice before us

In his “Discourses,” Niccolo Machiavelli outlined a predictable cycle of power for republics. Machiavelli pointed to a gradual decline in republican virtue, culminating in a crucial point of decision. At that point, when virtue is all-but lost, the people must choose — either to drastically adjust course back to their founding principles, or else decline …

The Holy Innocents

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, recalling the episode in Matthew’s Gospel when King Herod, fearing the threat to his reign of the prophesied King of kings, ordered the slaughter of all Jewish boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem. Matthew 2:13-18: When the wise men had departed, an angel of the …

Advent: Cleaning house with Mary

In the words of the old Bing Crosby song, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” No, this is not one of those grumpy War on Christmas columns. I love Christmas with all its trappings, though I do wish it were more about the spirit of giving and less about the price of the …

An issue on which we all (should) agree

Until recently, I thought there still was one area on which we all could agree: pedophilia. We could disagree on politics, religion, sports, the proper way to hang a roll of toilet paper. But, at the end of the day we all could agree that the sexual exploitation of children is every shade of wrong. …

The Light of God

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines …

Keep up the passion, strive for grace

I am, by almost any measure, passionate in my beliefs. Many of you, including some who have written me recently, also are passionate in your beliefs. This passion is a good thing. A republic of free citizens demands for its survival that we form and propound opinions about how our nation should be guided, and …

Ambition