Do you want to start the month off right? The First Friday of every month has traditionally been a devotional day for Catholics. The devotion is centered on the faithful going to Mass and Confession.  Many parishes have rediscovered First Fridays and make it a point to offer Confession and Eucharistic Adoration to go along [...]

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

Lessons from Boston on how to rebuild a Catholic culture

I couldn’t believe it when I saw it-a Catholic chapel in the middle of a large shopping mall. Right in the heart of Boston.

My family just got back from a cruise out of Boston to Bermuda. We bookended the cruise with some time in Boston.

On Saturday morning, I let my wife and kids sleep in and went in search of a church for some quiet time and prayer. The concierge recommended the St. Francis Chapel in the Prudential Center on Boylston Street. I didn’t think much of this idea (come on, a chapel in a mall??), so I got on my Droid and found that St. Clement, further down on Boylston (near Fenway Park), had 24/7 Eucharistic Adoration. It was only a mile or so away, so I started hoofing it towards St. Clement.

I found the church.

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

We must desire God and accept his gifts on his terms, not our own.

I hate when the following happens.

I’m browsing through my books and spot one that catches my interest for one reason or another. I plop it open and start reading. I become intrigued by a thought presented in the book. The thought then consumes me for a day or two.

It happened to me over the weekend. So, here’s the thought that’s been on my mind the past couple of days – why does man have a desire for God?

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

The relationship between Pope John Paul II and his father was one for the ages. There is so much for us to learn from them.

When Pope John Paul II was nine years old, his mother succumbed to a weak heart and damaged kidneys, leaving the future pontiff alone with his father and 23-year old brother who was in medical school.

I’ve been reading a book entitled “John Paul II: A Life of Grace” by Renzo Allegri, which tries to tie together all of the remarkable and providential occurrences in the Holy Father’s life. In the chapter describing the family’s life after Emilia Wojtyla’s death, Allegri paints a beautiful and stirring portrait of Pope John Paul II’s father, Captain Karol Wojtyla, Sr.

Fathers have a great deal to learn from this saint who was martyred when she was 11 years old.

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

July 6th is the feast day of St. Maria Goretti. She is the patron saint of young women.

She grew up a farm girl in rural Italy at the turn of the 19th into the 20th Century. When she was 11, a 19-year old boy living in the same house as her family started making advances on her. She kept refusing him.

Finally, after six months, the boy cornered her and forced himself on her, brandishing a knife. She didn’t give in. He then stabbed her repeatedly.

Are we spending our time as we should? Where do our priorities lie? The news isn’t good.

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

Occasionally, studies come along that just blow the socks off of our culture.

Recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (U.S. Department of Labor) released their 2011 America Time Use Survey, which measures how Americans spend their time (at least those over 15 years of age). The only press reports I saw on the study referenced the increased amount of leisure time that Americans seem to have (presumably because of the Great Recession and the high number of unemployed and underemployed workers).

But the story goes so much deeper and is an indictment on our culture.

How can we enter through the narrow gate when the pack on our back is too large to fit through it and too heavy to carry?

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

There are many great reasons to attend weekday Mass, especially if you do so at the same parish. One of them is that you get some incredible day-to-day insight from the pastor.

This morning’s homily was so thought-provoking that I threw out my intended post to write this one.

Today’s gospel is from Matthew 7. The last part of it is Matthew 7:13-14.

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”

How we dress is reflection of our spirtuality. We need to teach that to our teenage daughters.

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

I was at our parish festival this weekend. On Saturday night, I worked one of the booths in the kids’ area.

About 9:00, the teenagers started gathering. At one point, I’m guessing we had at least a hundred milling around.

I have never been uptight about what others were wearing. But, I’m changing. I guess I’m a little more attuned, especially to teenage dress, because of my soon to be pre-teen daughter. I’m paying closer attention to the signals that the culture is sending her and the signals that she is sending the world.

Persistence, will and heart are the keys to showing God that we have what it takes.

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

“Honey, she really has a lot to learn,” my wife warned me before the swim meet.

My daughter decided two weeks ago to join the local swim club team, even though she had never swum more than 25 meters in her life. She likes the water, but never showed any interest in actually swimming.

So, we were really surprised by her request and, as we’ve been trying to find a sport for her, we wholeheartedly encouraged her.

God’s expectations are the only expectations we should have for ourselves and others

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

It’s almost high school graduation season and I’m thinking about my own transition from high school to college way back when.

When I graduated from high school, it was 1982. I really didn’t know what to do with my life and so I started to listen to what others thought I needed to do.

In 1982, computers were becoming the thing. I had just gotten my first computer . . .