By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Trappist monks watch for Christmas differently than the rest of us, without colored lights, yard decorations, or holiday parties. And instead of Bing Crosby or Mariah…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– The Advent and Christmas seasons, unfolding in the Northern Hemisphere during the coldest and darkest days of the year, herald the hoped-for arrival of light. The…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– There’s a palpable sweetness in the air at Our Lady of the Mississippi monastery near Dubuque, Iowa. The source might be the abbey’s famous tasty caramel…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– In rural eastern Iowa, floating in the middle of a sea of corn fields, red barns, and silver silos, there is a wee bit o’ the…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– One recent Sunday afternoon, while walking in downtown Salt Lake City, I encountered a large group of people marching to the state capitol and protesting the…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Law school makes you see and think about things differently than normal people. I realized this one day in property class, when we studied landlord/tenant law.…

By Gary Topping– As a historian, I have never found the concept of a “generation” particularly useful, for two contradictory reasons.  For one thing, it threatens to lock one into…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Salve is a versatile word.  In Latin (pronounced “sal-vay”), it is a greeting and a welcoming phrase, derived from the verb for wishing someone health and…

By Gary Topping– Any memories I had of my first autumn in Utah—1972—are submerged in my recollection of the horrendous winter that ensued, when temperatures sank to minus fifteen degrees. …

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– If my dearly departed Irish Catholic mother was to haunt a place, she’d choose the old Sisters of Mercy convent and boarding school in her hometown…