Dear Friend,

As we begin a new calendar year let me offer some thoughts about making Christian Service a joy.

An amusing story was told to me by the retired manager of a New York hotel which hosted many large Catholic functions. The great Paderewski occupied a suite there a number of years ago during one of his seasons at Carnegie Hall.

Dear Friend,

Christmas can still arrive when you least expect it, sometimes in the most unexpected manner. A priest friend of mine relates a story of an elderly woman named Stella Thornhope who was struggling with her first Christmas alone. Her husband had died just a few months prior through a slowly developing cancer.

Dear Friend,

Do you know much about Emperor Penguins? I was not very familiar with these birds until a few years ago when the documentary, March of the Penguins, came out. And as I watched this documentary, I learned many intriguing facts about this largest of the penguin family.

Dear Friend,

Johann Sebastian Bach was born into the musical family of Bachs in 1685. By the age of ten, both of his parents were dead. Early in his friction-filled life, young Johann determined he would write music … music for the glory of God … and this he did.

Dear Friend,

Two hundred years ago, in the early 19th Century, as astonishing as it may seem, Christmas in Great Britain had become almost extinct.

The Times newspaper did not mention Christmas once between 1790 and 1835. Not once!

The lives of the saints are a great source of inspiration and reassurance for us. The holy women in Saintly Moms can help us better, to understand motherhood as a vocation, just like any other calling from God, and a path to holiness.

Dear Friend,

A pastor friend wrote to me about an article in a campus publication where a young nurse writes of her pilgrimage of learning to see in a patient the image of God beneath a very “distressing disguise.”

Eileen was one of her first patients, a person who was totally helpless.

Dear Friend,

What does hope in God do for humanity?

Hope shines brightest when the hour is darkest.

Hope motivates when discouragement comes.

Hope energizes when the body is tired.

Hope sweetens while bitterness bites.

Dear Friend,

During World War I, a British commander was preparing to lead his soldiers back to battle.

They’d been on furlough, and it was a cold, rainy, muddy day.

Their shoulders sagged because they knew what lay ahead of them: mud, blood, possible death. Nobody talked, nobody sang.

Dear Friend,

A college ethics teacher gave the following situation to a class of students.

How would you advise a mother who was pregnant with her fifth child based on the following facts.

Her husband had syphilis.

Can time be our friend?

At first glance, the question seems ridiculous, because the apparent scarcity of time is a constant source of stress in our busy lives. Thee are not enough hours in the day, we say as we collapse late at night. Deep down we know that we cannot go on like this.

Dear Friend,

In the 5th century AD, St. Augustine wrote about the "Four States of Man":

*The first state of man (the haec sunt prima) is "living according to the flesh -- with reason making no resistance." This can be seen in so many ancient cultures and religions (and unfortunately more than a few in our own time) with their human sacrifices, their idols, their pagan ceremonies, and even cannibalism.

Dear Friend,

I hope this week's "pastor's Pen" will give you a laugh.

A man has been lost and walking in the desert for about five days. One hot day--actually, they’re all hot--he comes to the home of a community of Irish missionary priests.

Tired and weak, he crawls up to the house and collapses on the doorstep. One of the priests takes him in and the community nurses him back to health.

Dear Friend,

Saint Theresa of Avila once said, ʺA growing Christian must have at his or her roots the life-giving waters of penitence.

The cultivation of a penitential spirit is absolutely essential to spiritual progress.

The lives of great saints teach us that self-distrust is vital to godliness.

Dear Friend,

Healing takes time, patience, and determination to persevere through the long process of healing.

It’s not easy, but it is the reality of the healing process.

A good friend recently told me his own experience with the healing process of his right knee. About two years ago he had a total right knee replacement.

For almost the entire history of the Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary has been returning to the world she left nearly two millennia ago.

In this revised and expanded fourth edition, Those Who Saw Her shares the latest developments, updates, and Church teachings on the apparitions of Mary.