The 2024 Jerry Seinfeld Award for Drip Dry Irony can already be safely presented to Wall Street Journal reporter Tim Higgin’s for arch-lipped appraisal of Elon Musk’s evocation of Christianity.

Excerpt from Pope Francis’ message for the World Day of Creation to be celebrated Sept. 1, 2024.

Have you ever been tempted to leave the Catholic Church? Don’t. Ever. For any reason. Why not? Because: *Extra ecclesiam nulla salus*, “There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church”.

As a young man of 16, and a competitive high school gymnast, I was thrilled to get a job at the Montreal Olympics. Organizers were desperate for staff, so I was put in the bar stand at the basketball arena, an under-aged kid blissfully selling beer to thirsty patrons.

The etymology of tending is from the Latin “tendere” to stretch, in a certain direction. What a fabulous way to think about the way we care!

Perhaps nowhere in society is the loss of the sacred more evident than in marriage and in the wedding ceremonies which solemnify a marriage.

This spring, I got an itch for change, and I cut my hair. Sixteen inches of curls lay on the floor. I instantly felt so much lighter. And as I went about my life, it was a big enough change that I didn’t recognize my own reflection. I walked by the microwave in the kitchen or a window on the street and did a double take to see myself clearly. And then I realized that this was also happening inside myself.

You will know them by their fruits.

Matthew 7: 16

I have often been fascinated by iconic pairings — how one person or one thing can be inextricably linked to another. Batman and Robin roll off the tongue, a pairing as natural as brie and crackers. Pisa and the leaning tower, Rome and the Vatican, are equally symbiotic. Advertising often depends on this or works hard to create the pairing, so that, for a time, Nike and Michael Jordan were synonymous, and Air Jordans were everywhere.

When I first heard rumblings about a documentary titled Jesus Thirsts: The Miracle of the Eucharist I had mixed feelings. While other recent programming such as this year’s Mother Cabrini film and the ongoing series The Chosen had drawn me in along with sizeable audiences sharing a hunger for Catholic representation in media, I found a sense of skepticism about a documentary tackling something as important to the faith as the Eucharist. 

The Bride and I are quickly approaching a milestone anniversary.  On September 1, we will have been married 40 years.  I sometimes wonder, how did that happen, and am I really that old?