Billy Wilder rsquo s movie The Last Weekend about the suicide of an alcoholic author won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Picture Wilder also garnered that year rsquo s Oscar for Best Director and Ray Milland won Best Actor portraying the final days of a binging alcoholic The film gained a four

Sometimes the way to understand one story is by way of another The story which we rsquo d all like to understand more fully is the resignation of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI The story the Church sets before us this First Sunday of Lent is that of Christ rsquo s Temptation Perhaps a story

nbsp Sometimes class discussions veer in a direction I don rsquo t intend For example I don rsquo t remember what aspect of the Incarnation I was trying to present in a class of freshman college students when a young man suddenly asked quot Where does Holy Water come from quot I was still t

Some of the best theology penned has been produced by novelists Take for example the figure of Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo rsquo s Les Mis rables If you haven rsquo t read the novel perhaps you rsquo ve seen the musical or recently taken in its film version In 19th century France Jean Valjea

Knowing that his election had precipitated the secession of the southern states but that as yet no shots had been fired Abraham Lincoln ended his first inaugural address on March 4 1861 with this appeal I am loath to close We are not enemies but friends We must not be enemies Though passio

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