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The Father of Lies tempted our first mother with the beguiling notion of progress. He told her that if she ate of the fruit, her eyes would be opened and that she would be as gods (Gen. 3:5). Eve was tempted by progress. She believed that there was something more to be had than God […]

In my previous articles, I have shared a few of the insights that Archbishop Fulton Sheen taught me as I have grown older. Lessons about finding a new mission after retirement, remembering that we are made for eternity, and discovering the peace that comes from counting blessings instead of birthdays. As I reflected further, I realized […]

‘‘Train up a child in the way he should go; for even when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). My parents placed this bible verse at my bedside table when I was very young. It remained there my entire childhood, and I saw it every night before I went to […]

I was engaged to be married when I was 22, which I understood to be the achievement of manhood. The better part of my teenage years were spent preparing for that moment. This was it, I told myself, I was finally going to be a man. I was ready. I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready […]

In one way or another, we fathers have to contend with the question of modesty in dress. I hope to formulate the concept of modesty in a positive light, as a virtue by which we show respect to that which deserves respect, a virtue that makes use of hiddenness to show forth the resplendence of […]

Unmarried men have the potential to be extremely selfish. There is no one depending on them, no child to take care of in the middle of the night, no wife to force compromise on a TV show. Single guys make their own schedule, and even when they do acts of charity or apostolic work, they make it fit into what they want to do.

Unmarried men have the potential to be extremely selfish. There is no one depending on them, no child to take care of in the middle of the night, no wife to force compromise on a TV show. Single guys make their own schedule, and even when they do acts of charity or apostolic work, they make it fit into what they want to do.

There is much talk about being a ‘real man’: the warrior man, the man without emotions or sympathies, the rival of all things deemed weak. Yet this kind of polemic is a form of extremism—and extremism is the devil’s playground. Satan thrives in extremes. He despises virtue and constantly goads us toward deficiency on one side or excess on the other.