This article was originally published in The Catholic News Herald of the diocese of Charlotte. This is a beautiful time of year when many people, regardless of spiritual or religious beliefs, take time to reflect on what they have to be grateful for. Even those who are suffering through hard times or illness will strive, at least for the holiday season, to list a few blessings in their lives and to give thanks for them. As Christians, it’s easy to say that we should be thanking God for our blessings all year long, but we don’t always succeed at doing that, and sometimes we don’t even know the blessings that we should be thankful for. God’s ways are not our ways, and the path is rarely smooth. The past few years especially have been a hardship for many, with fear and uncertainty, the loss of friends and loved ones, and an atmosphere of contention and judgement. It can be difficult to see where God might be working, how He is still caring for us even when we can’t see the direct evidence. Yet, we should still be giving thanks and trusting that He is at work, nonetheless. A few years ago, I read the book “The Hiding Place” by Corrie ten Boom, and it has since become a favorite of mine and one that I turn to regularly for consolation and wisdom. Corrie and her family were Christians living in Holland, and during World War II they became leaders in an underground movement to hide Jews and help them escape the country. When they were eventually discovered, Corrie, her father...

This article was originally published in The Catholic News Herald of the diocese of Charlotte. Oct. 7 marked the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, which was originally known as Our Lady of Victory. The date commemorates the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, when the armies of the Christian west, united as the Holy League under King Philip II of Spain and Pope (later St.) Pius V, defeated the Ottoman Turks who would otherwise have conquered and blotted out all of Christianity from Europe. The pairing of the titles Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary highlights an important truth of our faith: It is through the power and prayers of the rosary that God and His handmaid, the Blessed Virgin Mary, will triumph over evil. After the victory at Lepanto, the Venetian Senate had a picture painted to commemorate the battle along with these words, “Non virtus, non arma, non duces, sed Maria Rosarii, victors nos fecit” (“Not valor, not weapons, not leaders, but Our Lady of the Rosary made us victors”). During the crisis that led to the battle of Lepanto, Pope Pius V knew the martial potency of this devotion to the Blessed Virgin. The pope knew that they were fighting a holy war, that it was souls at stake as well as lives, and they needed prayers and spiritual weapons if Christendom was to be saved. As the fleet of the Holy League set out to make history, every Christian soldier was equipped with a rosary. Throughout Europe, the rosary was being prayed by the faithful for the success...

This article was originally published in The Catholic News Herald of the diocese of Charlotte. The Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton was a great advocate for the virtues of the everyday man and woman. In his essay on the British jury system, he commented, “When it (civilization) wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the most ordinary men standing round. The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity.” Who were the twelve men known as the Apostles of Jesus Christ? Perhaps one can list all of their names, hopefully keeping track of the different ways they are referred to in the different Gospels. After all, Matthew is also called Levi, Thaddaeus is actually another Judas (literally, not metaphorically), and Bartholomew is the same as Nathanael in the Gospel of John. We know that several of them were fishermen by trade, and that Matthew was a tax collector. We know that Simon Peter, at least, was married and had a mother-in-law whom Our Lord healed. We are given traditions about where each of these men traveled to after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost, legends of how they died and what became of their bodies, but after 2,000 years much must be taken on faith and our pious belief in these stories. In reading about the lives of the Apostles, it’s also clear that we have more details about some than of others. It’s not difficult to bring St. Peter or St. Paul alive in our imaginations, but have you...

This article was originally published in The Catholic News Herald of the diocese of Charlotte. One of my favorite scenes in the Bible is when Jesus walks on the water of the Sea of Galilee and calls St. Peter to come out to Him. And Peter does it. He steps out of the boat and onto the water, and he walks toward Our Lord. But then he notices the wind and the storm around him, and he begins to sink. It’s easy to imagine how his fear must have risen as he sank into the cold water. He had been a fisherman on that sea probably his whole life; he knew the dangers and treacheries of the sea during a storm. Perhaps he had seen men drown, or perhaps he simply knew of those who had gone out onto the water and never came back. He stepped out of that boat with such confidence when the Lord called to him, just as he had already left behind his fishing nets and all that he had known when Jesus said, “Follow me.” Then, as soon as he perceived how the world raged around him, he lost heart and began to be pulled under. But that is not the end of the scene. In his fear and distress, Peter cried, “Save me, Lord!” As St. Matthew tells us, Jesus immediately reached out His hand and caught him. With only a slight reprimand about his lack of faith, Peter is once again safe in the boat and the storm is calmed. I love this scene because of how it illuminates the character of St. Peter, and perhaps because I relate to it more than I always care to admit. In his book “Life of Christ,” Blessed Archbishop...