Father Lachlan and I are going to see The Milk Carton Kids in Tennessee this February, visiting his family while we’re down there. I’ve mentioned them to you in the past. They’re my favorite folk harmony duo. Check them out. I bet you’d like them. They’re not popular, but their music appeals to lots of people, young and old.

You know how we say sometimes that we belong to the first generation of people to live with a “global mindset,” with an open mindedness toward the possibility of a life shared with peoples of other nations. We hear it often actually. But we are not the first.

It seems natural to me that we detach from our parents as we grow into adulthood. It seems to me that God designed the human person to do just that. It also seems that the process of maturing is taking longer these days. Nor does it enjoy the success it once did.

How can you expect me to rejoice when my loved ones are suffering? When people are depressed? When everything is so divided? Saint Paul replies, “Do not reject the Spirit.”

It's a question we hear a lot these days. Heck, it's a question we ask a lot these days. And it's understandable, considering how even the once self-evident laws of nature are so often rejected by man. How could we not ask, "What has happened to right and wrong?"

I make mention of it on occasion (most often in private conversation), namely, the tradition of celebrating Mass ad orientem (to the east). It’s a term that describes the posture of the priest during the celebration of the Mass.

If, when King David’s death was approaching, he sent his son, Solomon, to continue the good work that God began in him, no wonder then that Jesus sent his disciples as sons and daughters to continue the good work that God had begun in him.

Because the word “Eucharist” comes from the Greek word for “Thanksgiving,” this might be a good time of the year to give thanks for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. So how do we benefit from the celebration of the Eucharist, anyway?