How many times have you heard something like the question, “Do you believe in the God of the Old Testament, or the God of the New Testament?” Of course, we know it is the same God, but some people say that God is “nicer” in the New Testament than in the Old.

My father was an air traffic controller. Sadly, after returning from the Vietnam War, he was let go by Regan in 1981 in response to the PATCO strikes. He went back to school to become a math teacher, but his heart never left the tower. To this day, I ask him to share about those years just to see his excitement.

Father Lachlan and I are going to see The Milk Carton Kids in Tennessee this February, visiting his family while we’re down there. I’ve mentioned them to you in the past. They’re my favorite folk harmony duo. Check them out. I bet you’d like them. They’re not popular, but their music appeals to lots of people, young and old.

You know how we say sometimes that we belong to the first generation of people to live with a “global mindset,” with an open mindedness toward the possibility of a life shared with peoples of other nations. We hear it often actually. But we are not the first.

It seems natural to me that we detach from our parents as we grow into adulthood. It seems to me that God designed the human person to do just that. It also seems that the process of maturing is taking longer these days. Nor does it enjoy the success it once did.

How can you expect me to rejoice when my loved ones are suffering? When people are depressed? When everything is so divided? Saint Paul replies, “Do not reject the Spirit.”

It's a question we hear a lot these days. Heck, it's a question we ask a lot these days. And it's understandable, considering how even the once self-evident laws of nature are so often rejected by man. How could we not ask, "What has happened to right and wrong?"

I make mention of it on occasion (most often in private conversation), namely, the tradition of celebrating Mass ad orientem (to the east). It’s a term that describes the posture of the priest during the celebration of the Mass.