They were a middle class family with middle-sized dreams and cares And of course their own holiday traditions One Christmas custom enjoyed by all six of the Martin daughters in their childhoods was leaving out their shoes to be filled with holiday treats The world has come to know the youngest

Last month on a cold November night in Times Square Police Officer Lawrence DePrimo who had been assigned there as part of a counter terrorism unit noticed an old man He was clearly homeless and even more obviously barefoot Officer DePrimo asked the man his shoe size He then went into a nearb

Flannery O rsquo Connor would have proudly owned the noun and the two adjectives most commonly associated with her name It rsquo s hard to imagine an ldquo author rdquo who could have been more ldquo Southern rdquo or more ldquo Catholic rdquo even though she lived at a time when those two a

My friend a pastor received an irate email from a parishioner a Eucharistic minister At one of the previous weekend rsquo s Masses one too many ministers had arrived at the altar to distribute Holy Communion As the last to ascend he had been asked to return to the pew Understandably the eve

Hurricane Sandy can be pondered as a parable because like every parable it contained a paradox In this case one of power The hurricane reminded us of two distinct aspects of power it both savages and sustains life First the savaging Sandy schooled us again about the tremendous power late

The story is told of a woman who left instructions for her children that when she died they should place on her grave a parking meter that read ldquo Time expired rdquo As we rapidly approach the end of the church rsquo s year time expired is also our theme This time of year as the days sho