SND BLOGS

Catholic Faith Corner

Living in the Light
of Jesus Christ

Sea of Galilee at Sunrise

Catholic Faith Corner

Living in the Light
of Jesus Christ

Saint Hildegard of Bingen, an Extraordinary Woman

Recently I edited an article on Saint Hildegard and learned much about this remarkable woman. Although she was born in 1098, it took 900 years before Pope Benedict XVI named her a saint in an “equivalent canonization” in 2012 and then shortly after, she was given the title doctor of the church. A true polymath, […]

Saints: Flawed Heroes

Happy Halloween (Saints’ Eve) and Happy Feast of All Saints! What pops into your mind when you hear the word saint? Do you think of someone pale and sickly, serious (if not downright grim), clothed in religious garb and living in caves or on clouds? Actually the saints had their feet on the ground. They […]

Creation, a Springboard to God

I just finished writing an endorsement for a book that is built on the premise that there is divine presence in all of creation. This concept is scripture based, for we read in Jeremiah 23:24, “Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.” When the Son of God became incarnate, he united himself […]

Saint Julie Billiart: A Woman for Our Time

Although St. Julie Billiart lived from 1751 to 1816, several aspects of her life parallel our current world. My latest book is her biography in the form of a novel:  The Walking Love of God: St. Julie Billiart. (It contains colored photos, which makes it more expensive, but I thought it was worth it.) Here […]

A Polish Saint, Maximilian Kolbe

I’m working on a project for an amateur radio operator who discovered that his hobby had a patron saint. In the process, I realized that this saint would also make a good patron saint for me:  St. Maximilian Kolbe. For one thing he is Polish, and so was my mother. Second, he had a profound […]

The Dying Words of Saints

My newest book is out: “I Am Going . . . : Reflections on the Last Words of the Saints” (89 of them!) published by ACTA Publications.  It has lovely full-page portraits of 14 of these saints. I thought you might enjoy reading the introduction . . . and be interested enough to purchase the […]

To Be or Not to Be . . . a Saint

This past week I was interviewed about saints for a podcast, so I thought I’d share some thoughts about them this week. I believe it was Leon Bloy who noted, “The only failure in life is not to be a saint.” A saint is someone who made it to heaven. Consider the alternative. Sometimes people […]

Flaws: Saints Weren’t Perfect Either

We’ve just finished a presidential campaign which was discouraging to many because both candidates were flawed. This prompted me to resurrect excerpts from an article I wrote decades ago: “Nobody is perfect.” How glibly we say that, but some of us have difficulty realizing that “nobody” includes us. Most of us, however, wake every morning […]

What’s Heaven Like?

My Aunt Arline was born with cerebral palsy. A good Lutheran couple adopted her. Operations to straighten her arms left long scars on her. Her speech was slurred, and she walked with difficulty. Sometimes her slight body was marked with ugly bruises from falls. Nevertheless she was a delightful person, married to my father’s brother, […]

No Bed of Roses for Saints

Writing a book on saints, I’ve come to realize how much they have suffered. You would think that a person who lived a good life and loved God would be blessed with a peaceful, easy life. So often this wasn’t the case. Instead of enjoying a charmed life, saints endured conflict, criticism, persecution, not to […]