The Lord tells us what to do. We just have to listen.” One of our recently-ordained priests wrote that in a profile about his view of vocations. So when the company that owned the newspaper I was publishing in Illinois in 2011 directed that an additional 18-20 percent would have …

Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr reminds you, on page 2 of this edition, that your Sunday Mass obligation is not suspended during the summer vacation months. Summer activities, coupled with extended daylight hours and warmer temperatures do consume time. Still, the Sunday Mass requirement is an obligation, not an option. “On …

My father once told me, “You can get any job you want if you always behave as if a potential employer is watching you when you are out in public.” His theory was that behaving as if someone who could do you good – or harm – was watching was …

An Ursuline sister who was one of my early teachers said of God, “Remember the teacher is always silent during the test.” One year ago, my wife slipped and broke her femur. Complicating the matter: We were in Indianapolis. When you have a medical emergency in a strange city, you …

The future looms as we near the end of another trip around the sun. And while it is deck the halls time, it also behooves us to look at the year ahead. Prepping for the celebration of Christ’s birth, we should ask ourselves how we’re going to build our spiritual …

References in the popular culture to letters written but never sent appear in literature, film and even songs. Nights in white satin, never seeming to end; Letters I’ve written, never meaning to send. – Justin Hayward, The Moody Blues 1967 Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, even John Kennedy, were all writers …

What are we saying this year? Season’s greetings? Holiday greetings? Merry Christmas? Anecdotal evidence would seem to indicate that how we greet others at Christmas time has more to do with fear than with conviction. We fear that we will offend someone or instigate an unpleasant confrontation. So we default …

Labor Day has just passed and as the nation celebrated the end of summer and the joys and glory of working, a cherished memory came. Dad went to a car dealership in 1959 and came home with a 1957 red Lincoln Premier two-door coupe. It displayed all of the excesses …

We can learn as our children grow. Solomon asked God for wisdom and God should have told him to listen to his children. I learned the concept of “inside voice and outside voice” when my oldest child started grade school. She explained to me one day when her brother and …

Hope has long gathered dust in my closet of virtues. Always quick to correct the grammatical misuse of the adverb, “hopefully,” I was just as quick to label “whimp” when hope was used in any reference. Faith – that takes courage; love – that takes strength. But hope? In mid-June, …