By Michael Patrick O’Brien– A recent news headline reported that a priest at a Catholic elementary in Nashville, Tennessee has banned J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books from the school library. This ban…
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– In the late 1800s, tuberculosis killed 1 of every 7 people on earth. This terrible bacterial plague—called the Captain of Death—claimed four of my own family…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– The old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah was my second home, a source of lasting friendship, and a font of spiritual refreshment. I knew the place…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– I have a rather nerdy habit of e-searching newspaper archives for stories about my old friends, the Trappist monks who used to live at Abbey of…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– My daughter and I recently watched the movie Fiddler on the Roof again. So much has changed, but not changed, since the first time I watched it almost…
By Deacon John Keyser (Guest Contributor)– The good Samaritan was someone who cared. Blessed are those who care: they will assure others that love can reach even them. Blessed are…
By George Pence– My father passed away last month. While seated next to his bed, and a few hours before his passing, I took this photo of his hand. Next…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Few people get to do something that they love for three decades, let alone do two such somethings. So I feel blessed that I have been…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– The Summer of 1979 was alive with news. The first Polish pope went to Poland. Men named Carter, Kennedy, and Reagan battled to be president. Ted Bundy…
By Abbot David Altman, O.C.S.O. (Guest Contributor)– When individuals go into monasteries, they take on much the same identity as the average family: they live by themselves peacefully, sustaining themselves…