Some friends and I were smoking cigars and chatting on the porch of a Brooklyn house during a summer evening in 2010. One of the friends recommended that I read Dostoevsky’s the Brothers Karamazov. Education had taught me that the book was a classic. Experience had taught me that not all “classics” are all that […]

Tucked away in a seemingly boring part of the Bible, the Forgotten Prayer of 1 Chronicles 4:10 is an unexpected invitation for men to come home—to the family we have all desired, the Church and the Holy Trinity, and our true vocation as fathers. The so-called “Prayer of Jabez” is not the materialistic and shallow […]

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” – Jesus Christ Regardless of your political persuasion, I believe many of us who watched the first of the U.S. presidential debates were shocked and dismayed. It was hardly the kind of engagement citizens of a country hope to see between two potential leaders. It was a brutal […]

The kids were out of control and so were the bills, my relationship with my wife felt strained, and I honestly didn’t think I could handle the stress at work anymore. I’ll never forget the day it all seemed to come crashing together. It looked like an ugly self-portrait, an American Gothic with me holding […]

Did you know that this Sunday, September 20, is International Buy a Priest a Beer Day? We are now in our 7th year of this glorious festal day. On this auspicious occaision, faithful Catholics all over the world take their priests out for a beer and get to know them better. It’s a beautiful Catholic […]

We are living in a time when men are besieged from all fronts.  Men have a suicide rate three times higher than women which many attribute, at least in part, to men equating asking for help with portraying vulnerability in a society where vulnerability is equated with weakness and not being a real man.  As […]

“It’s good to be king” was a common refrain in my home, and it was always in reference to me. I was a 5-year-old boy, who, my parents joked, got the royal treatment. My mother and father cooked for me, cleaned for me, and made sure I went to bed early. I was capable of […]

I’ll never forget the night my first child was born. I was racing down the freeway before dawn, clutching the steering wheel.  “Look out for deer,” Brittany moaned. I glanced at her sideways.  “You’re in labor, and you’re worried about deer?” “Just watch out for deer, okay!” I squeezed the steering wheel until my knuckles […]