Gilbert Keith Chesterton wrote, “The whole pleasure of marriage is that it is a perpetual crisis.” Nowadays, there is a new crisis in the crisis of marriage that is hardly a source of pleasure because it is an identity crisis. The challenge is to refrain from despairing over the institution of marriage by remembering, with […]

J.R.R. Tolkien was a romantic. When he met his future wife, Edith, at the age of 16, he was instantly smitten with her and immediately began an informal courtship, taking her to local tea houses on a regular basis. When the priest who acted as Tolkien’s guardian found out about his romance, however, he forbade […]

The United States just legalized gay “marriage.” Fear is in the air. I will simply share these thoughts: The final war between Satan and the Lord God is over the family. Why? Because the family is an icon of the Most Holy Trinity. The communion of love between the three Divine Persons is the original […]

Guys hate asking for directions. You know the stereotype: The family is on vacation, and they are hopelessly lost in an unfamiliar place. Dad is behind the wheel and he’s convinced he can find his way. The wife helpfully suggest stopping to ask a local for directions, but the husband snaps back that he is […]

  One of the pressing issues of Chesterton’s time was “birth control.” He not only objected to the idea, he objected to the very term because it meant the opposite of what it said. It meant no birth and no control. I can only imagine he would have the same objections about “gay marriage.” The idea […]

In college, I got to know an elderly couple who took a real liking to me, and they would often have me over to their house and take me out to dinner. While they were nothing but kind to me, their relationship with each other was incredibly hostile. Every conversation would turn into an angry shouting […]

“The state of marriage is one which requires more virtue and constancy than any other; it is a perpetual exercise in mortification.”- St. Francis de Sales “He who loves his wife loves himself.” Ephesians 5:28 I married a wonderful woman. She’s beautiful, hilarious, generous, and incredibly strong. (I’ve watched her give birth. Trust me, she’s […]

Best known for his fantasy novels The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien is probably better known by members of his family for his profound example of true fatherhood. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. His life growing up there and then later in England would prove […]