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Flannery O’Connor, the great Southern Catholic short story writer, was once asked why she uses violence at critical moments in her stories. “To the hard of hearing you shout,” she said, “and to the almost blind you use large and startling figures.” Jesus knew this as well. “If your hand causes… Read More »A word to rouse them

We had an impressive group of young men visiting with us last night from St. John’s Prep. In our conversation with them after dinner, each of them was asked to offer an observation about the service work they had done earlier in the day at a soup kitchen and a… Read More »Gladness and hope: a visit from St. John’s Prep

“What should we do?” ask those crowding around John the Baptist in one of our Advent readings. It’s about as straightforward and important a question as one could ask. The crowd has heard enough of John already to know that an event of great consequence is on the way. How should we… Read More »Advent: a time to clean house

My favorite title for the Blessed Mother is Mary, the Honor of our Race. I know it’s hard to top the Mother of God, but I’m aiming at something a little less elevated. It conveys what I want it to convey, that she is one of our own, and by… Read More »Mary, the honor of our race

Some of you of a certain age may remember Peggy Lee, the songstress who belted out “Fever,” but also a rather sad song, entitled “Is that all there is?” In that second song, she relates a series of experiences in her life – watching her house burn down as a child,… Read More »Christmas: the remedy for a disenchanted world

The lead up to my cancer surgery in April of 2014 was brief. As I was being rolled into the operating room for the biopsy the previous January, one of the attending physicians at Lahey Burlington mentioned, almost casually, that they had seen a dark area in the corner of my… Read More »A new lease on life

Thanks to a Christmas gift from my brother and sister-in-law, I was at Symphony Hall this past Friday afternoon with Fr. Roland. Marcelo Lehninger conducted two Beethoven pieces, the Overture to the Creatures of Prometheus and the Emperor concerto, and finished with the 5th symphony of Tchaikovsky. Javier Perianes was the featured… Read More »Music and the human spirit

Undoubtedly, there are advantages to reading from a tablet or an iPad. Cost, convenience while traveling, storage capacity, font flexibility all favor the electronic device over the traditional book, to say nothing of environmental concerns and the elimination of all that paper. Clearly, electronic is the reasonable way to go.   But sometimes rationality… Read More »A book in hand

Shane Lowry, the Irish golfer who recently won the British Open, made an interesting observation about how he dealt with the pressure of entering the final round with a four stroke advantage over the field. The context for the reporter’s question was a similar lead several years back going into… Read More »Putting God before golf, and everything else