Carlo Acutis and the Gift of Presence
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Often attributed to John Lennon, this quote from American journalist Allen Saunders speaks to me especially this week of April 21, 2025, as I write this piece...
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Study & Theology: Studying My Way to God
God has a way of hooking us. God hooked me through academic study. As a freshman in college, I was taking a Medieval History course when I was assigned The Little Flowers of St. Francis. I hated it. I found it ...
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Study & Theology: Francis, the Opposite of Practical
“If the degree would look good on your resume, go for it!” That was Dad’s response when I told him that I was thinking about getting a master’s degree in Franciscan theology. As a parent, Dad was particularly concerned about ...
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Study & Theology: For Space Travelers in Search of the Heart
My wife and I have a tradition of getting each other a Christmas ornament each year. One of the first she got for me was a space shuttle since she sometimes called me “spaceman.” She had already realized that I ...
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Study & Theology: A Franciscan Feast
When I was young, Thanksgiving dinners were never held in anyone’s house. My grandmother and her sisters decided that no one’s Philadelphia row house was big enough for the entire clan. Smart women that they were, we always took over ...
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Study & Theology: ‘Where You Lead, I Will Follow’
If I were to leave behind an epitaph, it would most certainly read, “Follow St. Francis!”
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Francis: A Natural Spiritual Genius
If our only goal is to love, there is no such thing as failure. Francis succeeded in living in this single-hearted way and thus turned all failure on its head. He even turned failure into success. This intense eagerness to ...
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