It is the Rosary that ensures that we remain close to Jesus. When we pray the Rosary, the Blessed Mother gives us her heart with which to love her Son, her eyes with which to look at Him, and her hands with which to hold Him and to serve Him.

The thief on the cross begs for heaven in the evening of life and still gets in. Dismas is his name. He’s Saint Dismas, actually. Saint?! What gives? This criminal cries out to Christ in the final hour of his miserable, displeasing life, and is consoled by the words, “This day, you will be with me in paradise.” But what about all of those people who tried to love God all their life long?

I will always remember the words my sister spoke of me at my Ordination reception. She said to the gathering of my closest friends and family, "My brother has always been surrounded by a lot of friends. He would bring them over to the house while we were growing up together. Knowing that God called him to be a priest now makes sense to me, because I can see that he will continue to be surrounded by a lot of people." She was right.

This past Thursday we read from the Gospel of Saint Luke, 5:1-11. It’s one of my favorite passages, and it happens to be the one that inspired me to use the title petersboat for this column and other things, like the website petersboat.net. Here’s the passage…

Something that has been consuming my thoughts lately, or has at least become a kind of prominent backdrop to all of them, is the Resurrection of Christ. I mean the actual historical fact of His return from the dead. Maybe it's because I wrote to you about cremation last week. In any case, here is the first part of a two-part column on the event that changed the world.

My Aunt died when she was just 41. Cancer. She was one of the youngest of our Italian side, the beloved of the family. I seem to remember, however, that she found it difficult at times to receive that love, because I recall seeing underneath her smile a sadness. What is this sadness we see in others and sometimes in ourselves?

You may remember that last week, for the Mass of The Assumption, I spoke in my homily about the practice of cremation. I'm sure you will agree that we see cremation more often these days, and so I figured that since the Assumption was a celebration of Our Lady's being taken up into heaven body and soul, then was as good a time as any to bring up the subject. So then, while we're at it, let's start with a word on death.

Hello again, everyone! I'm back from resting with my family for the month of July in the home where I was living when God called me to the priesthood. Everything in their home takes me back to the beginnings of this life I live now with Christ. And in that way, visiting with my parents is an opportunity for me to be renewed and strengthened in my vocation.