Category: Advancing the Kingdom

Doxy and Praxy were great friends. They had grown up together and each would feel lost without the other. Praxy was the more practical of the pair. She was resourceful and managed to accomplish what needed to be done. A ball of boundless energy, she…

According to the commentary in the Catholic New American Bible, the Book of Jonah in the Old Testament is a parable written sometime after the return of the Jewish people from exile. It is principally a story about the recalcitrance of a curmudgeonly prophet who…

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…