A Note from the Author

February 19, 2021

Saints for Lay People
The great majority of canonized saints are priests, nuns, and religious. Although lay people can find much inspiration in their lives, we especially appreciate saints whose circumstances are more...
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February 19, 2021

A God Who Not Only Shapes But Cares
What an extraordinary insight that is, and yet one shared—at least in isolate flecks—by so many of us. Others sense this beauty, but then immediately question it, categorizing it, labeling it, explaining...
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February 19, 2021

The Red River of Jesus’s Blood
The truth is that it’s almost always easier for a poet to talk about anything—or nothing—so long as the tone is engaging, witty, and avoids—as the old saw goes—certain kinds of politics—usually of a conservative cast—or religion, unless it be of a new age or...
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February 19, 2021

Joy Thieves
One idyllic summer evening, I sat in the backyard with my two older children. They were then ages five and two. A friend had bequeathed us a small, used swing set, and another friend had assembled it for the kids. As I sipped my coffee...
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February 18, 2021

A Holy Reunion: Meeting the Virgin Mary

Two decades ago I began a relationship with a mother I’d never met. A mother I didn’t know I had. On a sultry Florida morning in 1994, I sat in a church pew next to my fidgeting husband, only half-listening the sermon, when suddenly...

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February 18, 2021

A Death in the Family: Vignettes
I pass by the workshop on my way up to the house. I’ve been to the mailbox and shift a stack of bills and sale fliers, pinning it to my ribs with my arm so my fingers are free to pull up a sapling that has sprouted by the door. Pulling weeds...
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February 18, 2021

Reasons We Write that Aren’t Always Known to Us
About a year ago, soon before I started writing The Pope’s Cat, my wife and I adopted a teenage girl, Ana. We have a younger daughter at home, and two kids...
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February 18, 2021

The Great Cosmic Light Show
One night around twenty-two hundred years ago, somewhere near Alexandria, Egypt, the writer of the book of Wisdom lay back on his lawn, his head cushioned on his arms, and stared awestruck at the starry...
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February 18, 2021

Being Angry and Good
God created anger to be an integral part of our humanity. Along with other powerful emotions like fear and grief, God designed anger to be a valuable...
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