by Mitchell Kalpakgian | Listening to the talk shows on television every night, watching athletic events all day Saturday and Sunday, and spending hours on the Internet do not organize the day, deserve priority, or require the discipline of will power. They do not breathe life, nourish the mind, or lift the soul. A person does not need more time to do these essential things but a greater desire to do first things first.

So often in human life we wonder if someone is going to call, coming to visit, or going to write us a letter. We assume that we are to expect, ...

By Sarah Rose | There are some things we come to appreciate more as we get older. Oftentimes, cradle Catholics may not have a deep appreciation for their faith until they experience a type of conversion in their teen or young adult years.

Pope Francis: "There is another form of poverty! It is the spiritual poverty of our time, which afflicts the so-called richer countries particularly seriously. It is what my much-loved predecessor, Benedict XVI, called the ‘tyranny of relativism,’ which allows everyone to create his own criterion and endangers the coexistence of peoples. But there is no true peace without truth.”

Kevin Clark shares how God looked out for youngster, Fr. Robert Lange, and saved him from many mishaps. Read more in his memoirs!

As soon as my baby girl turned seven months old, I started feeling ill. And it wasn't the typical "I'm coming down with a cold" kind of ill. I was having a very difficult time breathing. As a busy mom, I dismissed it as the usual effects of sleep deprivation. I went to the hospital just to be sure, but they sent me home after all the test results came out normal.

I am convinced – utterly convinced – that if we all got together more often in order to celebrate the simple occasions in life, we would be a happier people. Each generation seems to be growing more and more isolated than the generation that preceded it. American society is fast becoming an isolated society.

In Robert Frost’s famous poem “The Road Not Taken,” a traveler recalls a moment in his life when he reached a crossroads. He comes to a turning point on the journey and pauses to consider which path to follow. Both roads have fair prospects and great allure.

Catholic parents seeks to shelter their children in their youth, so that they may grow in wisdom and holiness without constant battering from the world. But once they are grown and educated, these children no longer need shelter. They are able to take what they have learned and engage the world without fear.

When I was four years old and living in the Philippines, there was an elderly man who would come around our street once or twice a month to beg for food. He was ill and had a difficult time speaking. Nobody in the neighborhood seemed to know his name. Every time he came, my Lolo, or grandfather, greeted him with a hearty "Hello My Friend!" From then on, all of us children called him "My Friend".

The second principle in living the simple life is: Trusting in God’s providential love. But why is it so difficult for us to trust in Divine Providence? Why is it so easy to surrender all the areas of our lives to God except for the area of finances? Because trusting in the Lord requires the understanding that His divine plan is so much larger than our own.

I was asked to write an essay about the book that had most changed my life. This book was my answer. Relating the account of Denton’s ordeal as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for nearly eight years, it is clear that his struggle to practice his faith and keep his sanity during this time were beyond heroic.

Ten years ago, our family embarked on a journey which entailed leaving our comfortable life in Northern Virginia to live a life of simplicity in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. And ...

In Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s classic Gift from the Sea the author, using the leisure and recollection of a summer vacation at the ocean, reflects on the art of living a ...

The ancient Greeks identified the sign of fruitfulness as proof of the art of living well, as the true mark of civilization. On the shield of Achilles in the Iliad ...

The Beatitudes are worthy of our study. The first Beatitude, from the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus, encourages us to be poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit, we must empty ourselves of anything and everything that tends to displace Jesus Christ in our lives. Jesus must be first in our lives. He can’t be in second place. He must always be front and center.

by Fr Frank Papa | We all are commanded to obey the Ten Commandments because they were given by God the Father to Moses for all of us to obey. Jesus, the Son of God, repeated the Ten Commandments and the requirement for all to obey them. We all are required to be obedient to God’s commandments. Sin is disobedience to the laws of God.

“Last night, I had a dream,” three-year-old Drew announces during dinner. “Oh?” I say. “Yes. There was an alien in my dream and you know what he said, Mom?” “What?” ...

Learning Joy From the Poor of Cubao, the Philippines “The very deficiency of material things enhances, enriches and increases the faith.  The less for the eyes, the more for the ...

It is as though once a person achieves the age of 18, he becomes a legal adult, graduating out of a world in which he can be greatly influenced by his peers.