Imagine that you are living in first century Palestine. A few years earlier you had listened to Jesus of Nazareth preach and your heart was moved by his words. You saw him heal sick relatives and know that the power of God was at work in him. You came to believe that he was
Just because I’m living in the States now doesn’t mean that I have left island life far behind. There are many mainland communities with sizable island populations. Living in Erie there is a sizable Palauan population, though mostly our family and relatives. Fort Wayne (IN) has a good size Carolinian community, though again, mostly my
Elie Weisel died last July. He was an award-winning author who survived the Holocaust and spent the rest of his life reflecting on and writing about the experience. When he was just 15 years old, everyone he loved died in Nazi death camps or were murdered by soldiers in their neighborhoods. Over the next few
Recently there was a meeting of the formation team that runs the Deacon Formation Program for the Diocese of Erie. I was at the meeting, since I’m associate director of the program and coordinate the academic portion of the formation program. We were evaluating the progress of some of the candidates in the program. One
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, recently spoke at a meeting to honor the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Union. He diagnosed the state of Europe as being under the influence of a deep spiritual malaise. People have lost sight of their roots and the Christian religious heritage
I got one of those self-administered automatic blood pressure monitors for my birthday a few months ago. I had slightly elevated blood pressure for several years and my physician put me on medication for it. Last year I lost a lot of weight and have been exercising seriously since then, so that my blood pressure
After living and working in Micronesia much of the time from January 1973 through November 1997 my family and I moved to Erie, Pennsylvania. It was an extremely difficult decision and many issues, which I won’t go into here, played into the decision to move. Since then I have worked for the Diocese of Erie
Another understanding encountered in the Talmud draws on two images. The first is the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; and the second is the serpent who tricked Eve and Adam into eating of the fruit of the Tree. Adam and Eve are forbidden to eat the fruit of the tree. As the
In recent years the prayer that the minister says when administering ashes on Ash Wednesday has become a bit more flexible, in that alternatives are allowed. Somehow it just doesn’t feel right putting ashes on a youngster and saying “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return!” Given the drinking and driving habits
I try to avoid partisan politics in the Along the Way articles, as my goal is present gospel values and Catholic teaching, rather than political ideology of any shade. However, the gospels have specific content that makes demands upon the believer and Catholic teaching is also specific. There are times when the policy of the government or