John M. DeJak
All Their Wars are Merry, And All Their Songs are Sad
For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, And all their songs are sad. –G.K. Chesterton There is a strange phenomenon on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. It is probably the one place in the world where Irishmen have largely been raised on…
Charles E. Rice (1931-2015): Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant
Composing an encomium for Charles E. Rice is possibly one of the most difficult things to do. Difficult, not because he is unworthy; rather it is difficult, because words in a brief space cannot capture what the man meant to the thousands who have known him. Indeed, each of us who were privileged to have been…
Shades of Grey
The Lakeview neighborhood is an attractive area of Chicago’s north side. It seems as if it had always been a popular part of town. Though I didn’t realize it at the time we were dating, my future wife lived on Pine Grove and Diversey–the same street and block where Charlie Chaplin lived 80 years earlier. Typical of the last…
Out-Loud Discussions
In past generations, communication was limited. Society was largely agrarian and the modes of communication and the technology to deliver such to people outside one’s immediate circle was limited. It wasn’t non-existent, nor was it undesirable. Quite the contrary. Human beings are social animals and all have a desire to communicate and need to communicate. In modern times, it was the…
A Skiff in Raging Waters & Grace and The Value of Suffering in Marriage
Author’s Note: My wife Annie and I were honored to be asked by Fr. Nate Meyers and the good people of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Buffalo, MN to deliver a reflection on marriage for their annual Cana Dinner. It was a wonderful evening, and I commend our remarks (especially my bride’s!) to the friends of…
Sausages, Fireplaces, and The Mystery of Christmas Traditions
Well, I am within the 12 Days of Christmas, so I don’t consider this article late (by the way, don’t forget the Epiphany House Blessing!). My bride and I both spring from good ethnic stock–she, a Chicago Polack; I, a Cleveland Slovenian. But through the strange twists and turns of Providence (and decisions that I can only…
The Feast of St. Andrew
While our minds should rightly turn towards the First Sunday of Advent, don’t forget the Feast of St. Andrew (November 30). The brother of St. Peter and one of Our Lord’s Apostles. Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD, former Papal Latinist gives us a perspective on one of the great relics of Christendom–Andrew’s head! (I’ve written about an aspect…
On Meetings of Bishops (This should be shared and Tweeted far and wide!)
If I should write the truth, I believe that I ought to flee all meetings of bishops, because I have never seen any happy or satisfactory outcome from any council, nor one that has deterred evils more than it has occasioned their acceptance and growth. (St Gregory of Nazianzus, Letter 131 from 382 AD; cf….
Out of Depth
Minne’s Diner is a fantastic breakfast joint in Rogers, Minnesota. Right off I-94, the place reminds one of so many other classic breakfast places in the big city–only the hours are different, i.e., this place actually has a closing time. It was here, last Thursday, that I and some colleagues gathered for breakfast and Evelyn Waugh’s short story,…
Patriarch Sako Schools American Bishops
“[This American Bishop] is also not experiencing first hand what we are experiencing. In America they put baskets with asylum request forms on church altars during mass. As if the migration of thousands of Iraqi Christians to the US was something to ask God’s blessing for. That’s a strange thing to do and only confuses…
