Because pornography use is so widely used and accepted today, many people may wonder if they are addicted to it.  According to Dr. Mark Laaser (1992) pornography/sexual addiction is “any persistent and escalating unhealthy pattern of sexual behavior. It is compulsive in nature and used to avoid or change feelings despite destructive consequences to self […]

My grandfather was a scientist of significant accomplishment.  He invented some laundry detergents(“All”), the fabric in use in most French drains – which likely surround your home – and the means by which most homes today expel radon, which seeps in from the depths of the earth, a silent demon come up from darkness that […]

I don’t have much use for success gurus, but one idea from Tony Robbins that I heard years ago stuck with me. When asked the secret of change, he talks about taking “massive action.” We often don’t achieve our dreams, he claims, because we’re too half-hearted and timid about pursuing them. We think about what […]

  In this episode, I speak with Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP, promoter general of the Holy Rosary for the Dominican Order. Fr. Lew is a convert to the Catholic faith, and one time he was skeptical of all things Marian. Now, he travels the world preaching and teaching others to love the Blessed Mother and […]

Excerpt from Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s book, The World’s First Love.  The modern age, which gives primacy to sex, justifies promiscuity and divorce on the grounds that love is by its nature free—which, indeed, it is. All love is free love, in a certain sense. To be devoid of love is of the essence of hell. […]

Many Catholics are deeply anxious about the unprecedented situation we find ourselves in. Some are frustrated and even angry about parish closures in a time when we long for access to the sacraments. And it is looking increasingly as if we may have an historic Easter without public celebration of the Triduum. In light of […]

Note: This is the opening of the forthcoming issue of Sword & Spade.  It is being published here exclusively because of its ties to an upcoming Sunday that is potentially without Mass. As this issue nears printing the coronavirus is forcing many into “social isolation” to slow the pandemic.  Whatever your opinion of such measures, […]

Fear is a mental and spiritual virus. It spreads faster and more efficiently than any airborne disease. Its symptoms are at times anger, aggression, isolation, despair, irrationality, loss of faith, and clouded judgement, among other things. And if there is one emotion that dominates the world at this time, it is a deep and abiding […]