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Giving thanks to veterans, saints

By Lucia A. Silecchia
On Veterans Day a number of years ago, a cafe chain offered a free coffee drink to any veteran who visited on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. My Dad, a 1950’s Army veteran, went to claim this gracious token of appreciation. He came home, coffee in hand, but a bit dejected because the […]
11/10/22
Reading Time 3 min

‘Take care to guard against all greed’

By Effie Caldarola
My great-grandfather, a refugee from the devastating famine in Ireland, came to Nebraska to farm. Generations later, I grew up on that farm. I have roots — literal and figurative — in the land he purchased, a very small acreage of which I still own. These roots help me to identify with the farming images […]
11/8/22
Reading Time 3 min

No evil talk

By Elizabeth Foss
After dinner on many weeknights, my husband and I have a Jeopardy! habit. We sit and watch and compete with one another, and we’re pretty serious about it. Lately, though, it’s become a tiresome endeavor. Between rounds of trivia, we are inundated with political commercials. They are poorly written and poorly produced, and they are […]
11/7/22
Reading Time 2 min

Question Corner: Clapping at Mass

By Fr. Kenneth Doyle
Q. I have noticed that when the choir does a piece of music differently or performs a song especially well, someone inevitably starts to applaud and the rest of the congregation follows suit. I think that this detracts from the mood that the music has just created and interferes with the solemnity of the Mass. […]
11/6/22
Reading Time 4 min

Know, love and serve God

By Fr. Jack Peterson, YA
Gospel Commentary 11.6.22 Lk 20:27-38 Some years ago, I read the book, “Good to Great,” by Jim Collins. He helped lead a team of business analysts do a study of companies that were successful over the long haul. They were trying to answer the question, “Why some companies make the leap to greatness and others […]
11/5/22
Reading Time 3 min

Power made perfect

By Fr. Michael C. Isenberg
We marvel at the fortifications of ancient cities and the walls used to protected them. In our own time, we love the muscle car growling with unrestrained horsepower and the skyscraper towering at unbelievable heights. We long to be strong and powerful, an impenetrable fortress of solid rock. We even venerate martyrs who fearlessly stood […]
11/3/22
Reading Time 3 min

Overcoming the crowd

By Fr. Joseph M. Rampino
Gospel Commentary Oct. 30, Lk 19:1-10 Across from Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” in the most famous gallery of Paris’ Louvre Museum, another, much larger painting teaches a spiritual lesson deeply consonant with this weekend’s Gospel. Veronese’s “Wedding at Cana” presents a riot of people, movement and color, depicting the first of Jesus’ miracles on […]
10/29/22
Reading Time 3 min

Letting go, with gratitude

By Laura Kelly Fanucci
“Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled.” Thus begins the Canticle of Simeon, the prayer drawn from the words of the prophet who held the baby Jesus in the Temple at the presentation (Lk 2:29-32), a prayer often known by its Latin name “Nunc Dimittis” (“now dismiss”). A canticle […]
10/28/22
Reading Time 3 min

Question Corner: Can prayers clinch heaven?

By Fr. Kenneth Doyle
Q. I was given a prayer folder that tells me that I will suffer no purgatory and be taken directly to heaven when I die, provided that I say these prayers daily for 12 years. (Missed days can be made up.) I am about ready to start the third year, but a dear Catholic friend […]
10/27/22
Reading Time 2 min

Aspects of healing

By Mary Beth Bonacci
Have you ever encountered a situation where your response was … well, weird? Where you could see that you were overreacting, but despite that logical realization, you felt helpless to convince your emotions to get with the program? Do you have pain around a certain area of your life that you just don’t fully understand? […]
10/26/22
Reading Time 4 min

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