Since the death of my father three months ago, I have re-read parts of A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis, the blunt opening line of which tells the truth: “no one told me grief feels so like [...]

Here are some resources that can help us get into the right frame of mind as we approach the Triduum. Each year, I try to “lean in” during Holy Week, to focus my attentions on [...]

As Christmas time draws near, wives and sons, brothers and sisters do flips and twists trying to figure out what to get the man in their life. Fear not. Uncle Patrick is here with avuncular [...]

Every year around two minutes past midnight November 1, when Halloween ends and the malls begin spewing out “Xmas Muzak,” Christians trundle out their well-worn complaints about the tinselly squalor of today’s commercialized Christmas. Don’t [...]

Man was made to worship. It's in his DNA, so to speak, to reach out towards and even to surrender to a Higher Power. The object of his worship will either be the one true [...]

Here’s a little thought experiment. Imagine the industry known in shorthand as Hollywood as a kind of parallel Catholic Church. Call it the First HollyChurch of Bel Air. (Remember, this is an analogy, not a [...]

A technique out there purporting to be a form of Christian prayer has made inroads in countless parishes across the US and Canada. Its promoters try very hard to sound Catholic and monastic, but it [...]

It may be simply that we have fallen natures and therefore tend toward the grandiose. I’m referring to the tendency among so many Catholics to talk about the Culture Crisis and to call for major [...]