On January 1, 2017, I made a New Year’s resolution to make my Sundays Internet free. This involved not going online Sundays for any reason, whether it be for email, updates or inquiries. I did this because I realized just how much leisure time I was wasting on the Internet. I wanted to devote Sunday … Read more
A lady recently wrote me with a question about the role of material things in life. She was confounded by apparent contradictions between living a pious life while enjoying material things that are all around us. She had read the stories of the saints and how they often scorned material things. Since we are all … Read more
The standard narrative about today’s millennials is that they are unpredictable. They are very fluid and undefined. Despite this changeability, most people automatically assume that millennials are predictably liberal. The facts, however, tell a different story. Researchers who study the habits and attitudes of millennials do not support this forgone conclusion. Indeed, liberal-minded people are … Read more
A verdict has just been passed on Facebook, and the news is not good. A new study has come out pointing out the negative effects of Facebook. This study claims to be much more rigorous than those of the past. Of course, Facebook has always had its enemies. It is not surprising that there are … Read more
Traveling by air these days can be stressful. It is increasingly difficult to go on a trip without some incident happening like the recent tussle on United Airlines Flight 3411. More often, however, flights are being canceled or delayed due to mechanical or weather problems. This can lead to hours of waiting at the gates … Read more
Everyone knows that a stool needs at least three legs if it is going to serve as a place to sit. Any lesser combination turns the stool into something else that more than likely will land the person on the floor. For decades, the formula for the conservative movement’s successful action has been the three-legged … Read more
Probably the oldest likeness of Francis that has come down to us is that preserved in the Sacro Speco at Subiaco. It is said that it was painted by a Benedictine monk during the saint’s visit there, which may have been in 1218. The absence of the stigmata, halo, and title of saint in this … Read more
In the early autumn Francis, feeling the hand of death upon him, was carried to his beloved Porziuncola, that he might breathe his last sigh where his vocation had been revealed to him and whence his order had struggled into sight. On the way thither he asked to be set down, and with painful effort … Read more
It had become evident that the simple, familiar, and unceremonious ways which had marked the Franciscan movement at its beginning were gradually disappearing, and that the heroic poverty practiced by Francis and his companions at the outset became less easy as the friars with amazing rapidity increased in number. And this Francis could not help … Read more
In the autumn of the same year (1212) Francis’s burning desire for the conversion of the Saracens led him to embark for Syria, but having been shipwrecked on the coast of Slavonia, he had to return to Ancona. The following spring he devoted himself to evangelizing Central Italy. About this time (1213) Francis received from … Read more
