Essay

I missed it.  I'm not sure what I was doing but when I sat down to watch what remained of the Grammys my wife let me know I missed it.  The Foo Fighters had won best rock performance and Dave Grohl, the lead singer and…

I've got nothing.  Sorry to disappoint - I'm sure you were expecting some creative, insightful, reflection.  I sat down this morning trying to think of something to write and... nothing.   I thought I might write about my first day of CPE (I'm doing chaplaincy…

He's going to kill me, I know it.  It's not his style.  My suspicion is he wants to ride off, not into the sunset, but to some cabin in northern Minnesota where he can write without having to think about grading papers or going to…

  There were some excellent posts this week - some real heavy hitters.  Theresa's post on vocation was excellent, so was the Michelle Bachman piece.  I do, after all, live in Iowa and we've had our fill of Michelle Bachman.  Minnesota can have her back.…

For the past few years my wife and I have indulged in the pleasure of good television.  It all started with The Soprano's, which began a string of television series that became our evening respite.  Around 9:30, after the kids are long in bed and our…

To startle man, God becomes for an instant a blasphemer; one might almost say that God becomes for an instant an atheist.  He unrolls before Job a long panorama of created things, the horse, the eagle, the raven, the wild ass, the peacock, the ostrich,…

Every year we make the same trip.  We load up the kids in the minivan and head over to chop down the family Christmas tree Clark Griswold style.  Yesterday was the day - instead of heading to the mall we chopped down a tree.  My…

 Last year I spent three days a week working with the guidance counselor and chaplain of a new high school in south Minneapolis.  Cristo Rey Jesuit High School is a part of the nation wide Cristo Rey network of Catholic schools dedicated to maintaining a…