My life’s greatest regret happened during a baseball game my nine-year-old son was playing in. It’s a day I hate to remember, and yet I can’t forget it. Bottom of the last inning, my son’s team was up by one run, with runners on second and third base and two …

This is my last Shine On column for The Catholic Telegraph. I was running through my neighborhood over lunchtime during the COVID lockdown three years ago and praying about this column. I asked God what message He wanted to share with the world. There are more gifted writers and certainly …

Imagine for a moment that you are Satan. You’re the master deceiver, the father of lies, diabolical, and you’re fully set on stealing as many souls from God as possible. How would you do it? I’m sure we could imagine a thousand different ideas, but let me propose one strategy …

A school should never have to experience tragedy. No one argues with that, like not disputing that parents should never have to bury their child. These statements are anchored in powerful emotions. But, of course, life isn’t always as it should be. My son’s school recently experienced a tragedy: the …

In her book Grit, Angela Duckworth explores how much talent matters in achieving success, as compared to good old hard work. Duckworth is the founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance scientific insights that help children thrive. Her research uncovered an insight, which she …

Sometimes we get so caught up wishing things were perfect that we fail to move forward. The Church’s pro-life ministries seek to serve women who are unexpectedly pregnant, in crisis pregnancies, or struggling to make ends meet after giving birth, and to serve post-abortive women and men. With that in …

I never thought of my mom as a single mother but, objectively, she was. My parents divorced when I was nine. From then on, it was just my older sister, my younger brother and me living at home with Mom. Maybe it was because Dad was still around and we …

Do you know about Mary or do you actually know her? What was she like? How did she speak? What did she care about? What made her laugh? If you’re like me, you really want to get to know Mary – but how do we do that? We can learn …

Years ago, Milwaukee’s auxiliary bishop spoke to the confirmation class at the parish where I was a youth minister and opened the floor to questions. A student asked, “What is the purpose and meaning of life?” Perhaps the youth tried to stump the bishop, who answered without missing a beat, …

Where I used to work, the phrase “world class” was thrown around often. It sounds like a noble goal, to be world class, but there’s a dilemma. How do you define world class? CONSIDER MUSIC. Yo-Yo Ma was a child  prodigy cellist, graduated from the Juilliard School and Harvard, recorded …