Category: Advancing the Kingdom

When his grandmother asked him if he was ever going to settle down and establish roots, the thirty-something millennial offered as an excuse for not doing so: “Commitment is the enemy of choice”. With  irrefutable candor unique to grandmothers, she admonished him and said: “Commitment…

Sometimes ambiguity is instructive.  The expression “for the love of God” was popular generations ago. More often than not it was an exclamation: “Oh, for the love of God, get over it!”. At times it was a genuine religious explanation: “I do it for the…

Some readers may remember when the cheerful greeting “Happy Holidays” became a popular and convenient replacement for the traditional “Merry Christmas”. The intent was seemingly harmless as the former was indefinite enough to include reference to Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year celebrations. The same principle…

“Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another”.  Contemplating this quotation, readers who remember their high school Latin might recall having to conjugate the verb  ‘tradere’, the translation of which is ‘to hand over’ or ‘to hand…

Since its inception twenty-six years ago the donors of the National Catholic Community Foundation have requested thousands of grants be made with an aggregate value exceeding $30 million. To appreciate the geographic dispersion of these grants and the wide variety of recipients Readers might visit…

The media is abuzz with rumors that extraterrestrial beings are monitoring our planet. Surely, if these visitors are even nominally intelligent, they must be amused by us homo sapiens and our habit of linguistic contradiction. Consider the popular uses of the terms pro-choice and  discrimination. …

Are you a logophilic nerd? Are you inebriated by verbal nuance, troubled by the mutability in the meaning of words?  If so, have no fear. You’re not alone and your condition may be instructive. For instance, it is illustrative to consider the different implications of…

Because of their interest in the works of the Church around the world, our donors are aware of the vibrant growth the faith is experiencing in the southern hemisphere. Parish communities are expanding, churches are bursting at the seams during Sunday liturgies, and – especially…

“Do we accept the idea, strongly supported by fact, that the individual man cannot achieve his wholeness….except in solidarity with all other men, present, past and future? If we do, the awareness aroused in us of being a responsible element in a rebounding course of…

The scandal of particularity is a phrase which means different things to different people. For many, it refers to God’s selection of the Jews to be his Chosen People through whom the salvation of the world would be wrought. Why would he bestow this privilege…