By Michael Patrick O’Brien– My boyhood stomping ground of Ogden, Utah is so far away from Ireland—geographically, culturally, climatically— that I often bemoan what seems to be a chasm sundering…
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– My dear wife Vicki is one of the kindest persons I know. That’s why I scratch my head trying to figure out why she sets traps…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– When watching the Winter Olympics on television every four years, I try to remember all the hard work that unknown people do behind the scenes to…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– A recent ordinary moment with my friends, Utah’s Trappist monks, now is an unexpected and extraordinary reminder of the essence of their unique monastic life. In…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Sometimes we take existence for granted and become oblivious to the sheer wonder of being. That’s why I recently took a couple of remedial courses on…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– When I was a boy, my Trappist monk friends shared their homemade wheat bread with me. It was a precious moment of monastic hospitality, made even…
By Gary Topping– (Editor’s note: a previous version of this article appeared in the Intermountain Catholic. Part one of this story is available here.) Mary Bell and the McDougall family learned…
By Gary Topping– (Editor’s note: a previous version of this story appeared in the Intermountain Catholic.) When a young man announces his intention to enter the priesthood, we are filled…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Don’t let the whole Boy Monk persona thing fool you. I have a good old-fashioned nasty Irish temper including, on occasion, a very sharp tongue. Several…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Wisdom, of course, can come from many unusual places and from very unexpected sources. Yet, most people still are surprised when I point to a Catholic…