Today’s memorial of Paul of the Cross reminds me of how my Mom loved crosses. I can’t tell you how many crosses mom collected, but it was clear that she loved crosses.  All kinds of crosses, from the ornate to the very simple. …

It is commonly said that you can’t choose your family.  We all seem to accept this as true to a certain extent.  We tend to think of this sense of “family” as a blood-line determined by parents, grandparents, etc.  There is, though, a broader sense of family that we find in the both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, and for that matter, in other religions as well. …

Why is it that many times we have to make our own personal mistakes, rather than learn from the mistakes of others?  As children, our parents warned us about getting into certain situations or doing certain things that would result in less than ideal and sometimes painful consequences. …

I kind of “space out” in crowds.  I easily get lost and many times my friends have had to come and find me because I have either lost sight of them and/or wandered off in another direction.  There is something distracting about a “crowd,” something to me that is somewhat depersonalizing and vague. …

One day I am going to make it to New York City for the Blessing of the Animals at St. John the Divine Cathedral on the first weekend in October.  I can only imagine the atmosphere of the hours-long ceremony in honor of St.…