Category: Origins
The Garden of Gethsemane
I have long embraced Ignatian Spirituality where I insert myself into a scene in which I am writing. Writing has always been a personal experience for me, but never less than when I wrote Gaspar, Another Tale of the Christ.
As approach the ‘difficult’ part of Holy Week, I invite you to read – and hopefully experience – this excerpt from Gaspar. It is how I emersed myself in the final night Jesus lived.
Crossing the Line… again
For many years, listening to Garrison Keillor’s “Writer’s Almanac” was part of my daily regimen. Two years ago, Mr. Keillor ‘crossed the line’ and I abandoned his daily offerings. Continue reading Crossing the Line… again
The Way is Safe
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
This piece was originally posted several years ago…
Today, January 27, 2015 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a memorial day for the victims of the Holocaust, estimated at 6 million Jews, 2 million gypsies, 15,000 homosexuals, and countless other millions like Edith Stein, Maximilian Kolbe, and Bronisław Czech who gave their lives to resist one man’s unfortunate choice to eliminate a people from the face of the earth.
The United Nations established this memorial day in 2005. The date coincides with the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau – the largest Nazi death camp – on January 27, 1945. Continue reading International Holocaust Remembrance Day
The Whisper of God
Jesus and The Leper
Merry Christmas
Writing a book is an act of creation. I hold a special place in my heart for each of the seven works of fiction I have created. I would be hard-pressed to say I like this one more than that one. Each work has its strengths… and weaknesses.
One sequence that I am particularly fond of is the Nativity sequence I wrote for Gaspar, Another Tale of the Christ. One of the highlights of my literary career occurred in January 2015 when my friend Alistair McKenzie came to Tucson and read the sequence at weekend masses at the Redemptorist Renewal Center in Picture Rocks, Arizona.
As Christmas rapidly approaches, I want to share Alistair’s reading of that sequence again with the thought that it might help strengthen our convictions and purpose as we conclude one year and move forward into another.
The Christmas Story Audio
1948 Downloads
Merry Christmas
Indifference
Leon Uris and Love of Country
Fifty-one years ago – nearly to the day – I read Leon Uris’s novel of Berlin in the aftermath of WWII, Armageddon. I still retain that first edition though the dustcover no longer exists. I read the book over a weekend in the spring of my senior year at the United States Air Force Academy. I am a slow reader, but I devoured this 632-page novel in two days, a personal record. Continue reading Leon Uris and Love of Country