Saints are Sinners Too
“All creatures – being a mixture, as it were, of perfection and imperfection – have been used by the Scripture to teach us about both good and evil. There is not one from which we cannot draw an analogy to [...]
July 2018
June 2018
A Faithful Doubter?
In a chapter entitled “On Slander” in his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote: “Do not say that so-and-so is a drunkard even though you have seen him intoxicated, or that so-and-so is an adulterer even if [...]
Annecy! A Salesian Vacation
Anyone even remotely familiar with St. Francis de Sales, St. Jane de Chantal , the Visitation Sisters or the Oblates of St Francis de Sales will grasp the joy that floods one’s heart in seeing or hearing the name of [...]
Motherhood and the Universal Call to Holiness
I remember as a young child enjoying television shows such as The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family. Television shows often highlighted the tenderness, compassion, and frustrations of motherhood in humorous and insightful ways. And I always saw them as [...]
The Generosity of God’s Love Knows No Bounds!
When we allow our human heart to be surrounded by God's heart, we find joy and hope in the nooks and crannies of each moment and God present in every wrinkle of our day. This awesome love that God has [...]
Salesian Spirituality & Fake News
By this point, I am sure that we are familiar with the term “fake news.” The term itself refers to a type of news that is found in traditional news (print & TV) and in social media websites that has [...]
May 2018
Feast of the Visitation of Mary
Today (May 31) the church celebrates the Feast of the Visitation of Mary, recalling the event where the mother of Jesus travels to the home of her aging cousin, Elizabeth, mother of John the [...]
The Empty Locker
As our senior high school students prepare for their upcoming graduation, their thoughts and memories may begin to turn to the many spaces which defined their experience of high school: The classrooms where they aced tests, debated with teachers, [...]
The Ripe Path
In the reconciliation room of my church hangs a painting of the “Woman Caught in Adultery” crafted by Brother Mickey McGrath, OSFS. In that depiction the angry crowd stands to the left and the humiliated woman stands to the right. [...]
Married Love and Devotion
In Part 3 of the Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis reflects on how husbands and wives contribute to each other’s holiness: "The union of husband and wife in holy devotion . . . is the best and most fruitful [...]