Many people have mixed emotions about the holidays. Families separated the entire year are thrust together again under difficult circumstances. Old wounds and resentments resurface. Relatives with whom we have limited contact and conversation suddenly ...

December 13—This morning in Rome it was announced that the pope had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, the Archbishop of Boston. This brings to an end one part of the yearlong priest sex ...

Phew. What a relief—at 24, I finally had it all figured out. I mean, how difficult could this whole religion and God thing be? Well, it turns out that I had a lot more to ...

I was sentenced to an alarm clock and cold cereal on my first day of kindergarten. I dressed myself, rode my bike to summer activities, and took the yellow bus to school ...

Remember the days before "super size"? Remember when the smallest size coffee you could order was—you won't believe this—a "small"? When was the last time you ate ...

Every time I attend a burial, the weather's not good. Rain, cold, mud; the universe seems to provide a climate in tune with the mood of those gathered around the grave. The rain returned this week ...

Winter in Ontario and I couldn't touch my toes. I was plopped on the kitchen floor, legs spread in a 'V' and hands stretched towards my feet. ...

What is a good deed? What's the point of trying to be good in a world that's clearly a mess? And how do you even begin to do that? These ...

Pride pulsated through my veins, turning me into a third-grader with Attention Deficit Disorder as I anticipated the inauguration of the Casa Acogida ("Hospitality House"). The house is a project that was four years ...

Oatmeal is not a favorite food of two-year-olds. Mine wasn't too thrilled to see it arrive on the breakfast table this morning. He ate grudgingly, intermittent spoonfuls hitting the table and floor. I cajoled it ...

This autumn one group of Americans has chosen their Halloween costumes and bought candy. Another group is painting skulls and looking through scrapbooks for favorite pictures of dead relatives. All Souls Day ...

We each have a breaking point. I reached mine one recent Sunday morning when, just before noon, I realized that I'd been awake for four hours and doing homework for four hours. I was reading ...

Talked to any dead friends or relatives lately? John Edward says he does it all the time. You've probably heard of Edward, who hosts the syndicated Crossing Over. A self-described "medium," he stands in a gallery of ...

My friend Dave Connors was 25 when he died of complications from heart surgery. For as long as I knew Dave, he was hampered by physical ailments, but I ...

What do a vintage Warner Brothers cartoon, a classic war movie, and a caution about how we see ourselves have to do with one another? They are my way of trying to untangle the flag-waving ...

At the end of the first semester of my senior year at college, during the month of December, 2001, I was visiting with Tom, my Jesuit Scholastic friend who, ...

The leader of our organization (Jesus) always was a savvy marketer, a marketing God, if you will. He knew his audience, he knew how to reach them, and he wasn't afraid to go up against ...

 A priest and a rabbi walk into a bar. The rabbi buys the first round, but the priest is not stingy either and buys the next. They spend a few hours telling priest and rabbi jokes, ...

Marion's off this week. So I'd like to dedicate this week's column to my college friend, Susan Cullen, and her soul mate, Thomas Cullen. Tom Cullen was killed in the September 11th disaster. He was ...

We've noticed that many people seem to want to form connections since the tragedy of September 11th last year. Even in everyday encounters when we're running errands, people want to talk more. ...