Hope has long gathered dust in my closet of virtues. Always quick to correct the grammatical misuse of the adverb, “hopefully,” I was just as quick to label “whimp” when hope was used in any reference. Faith – that takes courage; love – that takes strength. But hope? In mid-June, …

Have you ever dropped out or given up? Do you have piles of uncompleted projects? “Never, never, never give up,” said Winston Churchill after the London blitz. “Move forward, at all cost, move forward,” said Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain at the battle of Gettysburg. “I have fought the good fight. I …

By Sister Constance Veit, L.S.P. In college I grew in my Catholic faith and had a strong experience of religious pluralism. I was involved in the Newman Center daily but I also had many non-Catholic friends and even frequented Hillel House, the Jewish student center. Several of my Jewish friends …

Have you ever been a square peg? As I examine my own life, I can see those times when I decided to ignore God’s “round hole” vision for life and force my “square peg” self into God’s plans. It seems, we want to impose our version of reality on God’s …

There’s a lot of talk these days about fake news. I do not like the word fake, “a forgery” among other definitions. What they’re referring to is something written to mislead or trick the reader, especially if it disagrees with a given bias or promotes a perceived bias. Fake news, …

Q: I have been told that heaven will be a place of complete joy with no pain, anxiety or sense of loss. Knowing that all of my family and friends might not attain heaven, how will I (presuming I am in heaven) not feel a sense of loss knowing that …

By Jeanne Hunt One of my favorite passages in Scripture is the time Mrs. Zebedee tries to get Jesus to give her sons first-row seats at the heavenly banquet (see Matthew 20:20–28). I can really identify with her motivation. The mother’s handbook requires us to look out for our boys. …

The young news clerk at the newspaper I edited in North Carolina had a healthy, if peculiar curiosity about Catholics and our beliefs. Did we really pray to statues? Did we pray in a language (Latin) also used by Satan? Did we really drink blood at Mass? Did all Catholics …

By Father David Endres Q: I received the Eucharist under both forms – the host and from the chalice – for the first time recently and I felt Christ in my heart as never before. I thought it was because I was receiving the Precious Blood and not just the …

Our parents told us to stay away from the river, so naturally, that’s where we went. We would get muddy in the sour-smelling river muck that lined the banks of the Mississippi, right near what the local historians claimed was the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition up …