By Michael Patrick O’Brien– During the early 1900s, my great aunt devoted her life to helping the “poor, sick and ignorant” in Burlington, Vermont. She was part of the Sisters…
Posts published by “Mike O'Brien”
By Gary Topping– It’s a familiar story: a kid from a poor family frugally gathers funds from baby sitting, grocery bagging, and such odd jobs to pay for her first…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Many years ago, my high school biology teacher told us the scientific explanation for physical gender differences- women have XX chromosomes and men have XY chromosones.…
By Jean Welch Hill– In his apostolic exhortation, Gaudete Et Exsultate, Pope Francis reminds us of St. John Paul II’s observation that “If we truly start out anew from contemplation…
By Gary Topping– When World War II broke out in 1939, William H. McDougall, Jr. was a flashy young reporter for the Salt Lake Telegram and a rising star in…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– While cable channel surfing the other day, I stumbled again upon one of my favorite movies from 1982. It is a wonderful movie about a fellow…
By Larry Fraher (Guest Contributor)– It was a sunny day in Prescott, Arizona. My dad, in his 6’7” frame, with 6 of his 8 children trailing him over the boulder…
By Jean Welch Hill– In recent weeks, I have found myself engaged in conversations about Muslims. Sadly, all of these conversations have revolved around fear of Muslim people in general…
By Gary Topping– So the story goes like this: an over-zealous student of Latin gets the idea that since Latin is the root of all the Romance languages, one ought…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– If we non-monks want to better understand the life and purpose of people who choose to live in a monastery, we need only think of a…