In the closing pages of his book entitled American Church, author Russell Shaw describes “New Evangelization”:

“The key to new evangelization as a high priority of a new American Catholic subculture isn’t institutions and programs. Where to begin? It must start with the idea of vocation: with preaching and teaching and writing and broadcasting in every available forum the message that God intends each of us to play a unique, unrepeatable role in his providential, redemptive plan. Every life is a vocation. Today, it is not merely desirable but imperative that we acknowledge the reality of unique, personal vocation as preached and taught by such figures as Saint Francis de Sales…”

As a casual NFL fan, whose attention is drawn to the gridiron only once the playoffs begin, the defensive stalemate that characterized the most recent Super Bowl was thankfully punctuated for me by the regular interlude of this year’s lineup of Super Bowl commercials. While feeling slightly guilty for being so intrigued by such unabashed invitations to American consumerism, I’m always curious to see what the best in current televised marketing can come up with.

The crying infant in her dad’s arms may have just found her voice and was testing its volume in church. Her embarrassed father was trying to quell her enthusiasm. Pushing back all attempts, she was ardently enjoying her “new toy” and the new boundary her voice opened for her.

January 24 is the feast day of St. Francis de Sales. In honor of his feast day, I would like to reflect upon a few lesser-known aspects of his life.

If we were to ask Francis de Sales for the briefest and best summary of his spirit and doctrine, he would probably answer us with what he wrote at the end of his spiritual masterpiece, Treatise on the Love of God: "Live Jesus whom I love!" (Bk 12, ch. 13)

In his latest book entitled, The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity, New York Times bestselling author Matthew Kelly asserts: "The myriad of lies that have always swirled around Christianity have sown doubt in the hearts and minds and eroded the faith of millions.............…

This weekend, as we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the option is given of a well-known reading from the prophet Isaiah, which the Gospel writers would see as pointing to John the Baptist...........…

The early days of television gave us a perfect family series to model family life. Leave it to Beaver provided a perfectly dressed dad and mom who handled their everyday family problems of their two trouble-prone children, Beaver and Wally, in one weekly thirty-minute segment...........… 

During the four weeks before Christmas, many churches put on Christmas pageants in which the story of the birth of Jesus is acted out, usually by young children. One of my favorite Christmas stories is about one of those Christmas pageants. It took place in a small Church in a little village somewhere in New England. You may have heard it too..........…

We all have probably heard this spoken to us at some point during our lives as children, listening attentively as our parents, grandparents, or other loved ones recited fairy tales to us at our bedside, lulling us to sleep with tales of enchanted kingdoms, charming princes and dastardly villains, wizards and magical spells..............… 

Some time ago, I found an article in Entrepeneur.com entitled, “Eight Ways Practicing Patience Radically Increases Your Capacity for Success”. Not to worry – I’m not going to walk through all eight of them – but I will focus on one of them...................…