The challenge of regularly visiting a group of shut-ins, or those confined to bed, is that each expects you to arrive at the same time each week, and yet each also pleads that you stay a little longer than you did the week before.

nbsp We seldom remember when or where we learned life rsquo s truly useful lessons Plato suggested that this is because deep down the soul has always known these truths though that teaching of Plato didn rsquo t seem familiar to me the first time I heard it Perhaps we simply remember the be

He was a soldier of fortune who became a mercenary for the usual reasons: fame, fortune, females. As the youngest son of minor Spanish nobility, there was small prospect of these at home, and his industry and bravery were paying off, when a French canon ball tore open his left calf and broke his right shin. I igo was confined to bed for months, his leg clumsily set, re-broken, and set again. A protruding limb was sawn off. His leg had to be stretched with weights. He passed his long convalescence reading books, either on chivalry or the saints. To his surprise, he began to enjoy the latter, to draw meaning and hope from them. They led to a much deeper Catholicism than Ignatius of Loyola had previously known.

nbsp As they rsquo re wont to do a recent conversation with my Mother moved from Christmas current to Christmases past We were discussing the visits of Santa Claus to our childhood home and Mom remarked ldquo We have plenty of pictures of your sister crying rather than sitting on Santa rsquo

In an interview with Newsday Hugh McGowan described his daughter Anne Marie Murphy fifty-two the married mother of four children as ldquo witty rdquo and ldquo hardworking rdquo an artistic and fun-loving painter The world would know nothing of this special education teacher were it not

He saw a world suffused with goodness he loved it unreservedly and he called forth the best in us Though he came to live among us his was a foreign provenance He came unto his own and they knew him not And of course he walked the whole way mdash as he would often say mdash ldquo first th