It was a Sunday evening, and the scene at my dinner table was anything but pleasant. The kids were all snapping at each other, had a hard time sitting still, and were picking at the dinner I had spent the better part of the afternoon preparing. The kids just got back from a weekend with […]
One day, as I walked into the kitchen, my four-year-old son was watching his favorite TV show. Patting the seat of his chair, he looked up at me with these big, puppy-dog eyes and said, “Can you come and sit with me?” My heart melted. Even though I had a million things to do, I could […]
Several years ago, I brought my then five-year-old daughter to the doctor for her annual physical. She was due for a couple of immunizations, and I was trying to find a delicate way of answering her repeated question, “Am I going to get any shots?” I managed to avoid answering the question directly with responses […]
There is a powerful scene in the movie The Lion King where Simba and Nala wander off and find themselves lost in the Elephant Graveyard. The Elephant Graveyard is a very scary place, filled with the bones of many dead elephants and vicious animals. They are terrified as they try to find their way out of this […]
I remember when I was in the throes of my divorce, one of my co-workers said, “I know this is difficult. You deserve to be happy.” I thought, “Yea, she’s right. I do deserve to be happy!” Back then, I approached happiness like some kind of life achievement, like graduating from high school. I wanted to […]
When my divorce was final, my kids were all under the age of ten, with my youngest going into kindergarten. I was now a single parent responsible for raising these little kids, while trying to piece my life back together, and running a demanding business. Life was stressful, to say the least. Since my kids […]
When I was in the throes of my divorce, and my world was collapsing around me, my counselor suggested that I read one of the Psalms each day. She said that they would encourage me and give me hope. She was so right. My daily reading of the Psalms became my oxygen when I was […]
I assumed that Friday, April 8, 2016, would start out like every other day that week. It was Spring Break and I had spent the week sharing some major quality time with my 6-year-old son while my wife was in Florida relaxing with some of our other kids. I was wrong. The pope had published his post-synodal apostolic […]
One evening, I was leaving a meeting at my parish, and was pulling out of my parking space, when I stopped dead in my tracks. I had just realized that I walked out of the church and forgot to make a visit to Jesus. In every Catholic Church around the world, Jesus, in the form […]
I will never forget the morning after my marriage crumbled. It was as if I woke up into a nightmare. I could not believe what was happening to me, my children, and my marriage. It was surreal. I just wanted to close my eyes and hope that I was really still asleep and would wake […]