Down Syndrome Day?

  Have you ever wondered why we see so few children with Down syndrome today compared to past generations? The single biggest reason is that in the United States roughly 9 out of 10 babies are aborted if they are diagnosed with Down syndrome as a result of prenatal...
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Murders in Kansas; Marked for Life

  The mid-to-late fifties were a good time to grow up in Garden City, Kansas—a town of 10,000. My mother never lacked love, energy, dreams, and the most encouraging words. My father modeled a work ethic, held us accountable, and shared his wisdom, including how to be...
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A Beautiful Outside

  It was the seventies. Susan and I walked past it every Sunday on our way to and from church. It was a lovely little house, single-story, low adobe wall lined with flowers around the yard, a walk to the door. One Sunday, Susan told me: “They do abortions there.” We were...
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“God first, me Second”

  Ash Wednesday is nearly upon us, the beginning of Lent. The imposition of ashes of burnt palm branches on our foreheads calls to mind the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. In his honor, the people laid out palm branches along the road that took Jesus, riding on a...
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Pastoral Reflection for Lent 2025

  On the first Sunday in Lent this year, many churches will read St. Luke’s account of our Lord’s forty days’ temptations in the wilderness, which is preceded by a genealogy of Jesus (Lk. 3:23-38). St. Matthew’s Gospel has a genealogy too (Mt. 1:1-17), proceeding from...
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Saved But Not Yet Safe

  I recently read Carmen Joy Imes’s Bearing God’s Name, an accessible, albeit somewhat academic meditation on the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. This is just my sort of thing, both meditative and intellectual, biblical and gentle. During the course of the book, Imes...
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Pro-life Integrity

    Persuasive people are logical, passionate—and credible. And undergirding credibility is the virtue of integrity. If prolifers want to win people over to the pro-life cause, we should be in the habit of building and repairing our own integrity. A lack of integrity...
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Makers of Men

    You may have heard that President Trump recently pardoned several prolifers who were arrested and jailed for peacefully praying/protesting at abortion clinics. Kayleigh McEnany of Fox News interviewed three of them: Paulette Harlow (who was accompanied on set by her...
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The Church’s Countercultural Mary

    Women in leadership roles are to some degree immune from public criticism. Often, those who find female leaders lacking tend to restrict their observations to private communication. Afraid of being labeled “sexist,” they pretty much silence their concerns. Sure,...
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When a Monk Dies

    In my last reflection here, I argued against euthanasia and physician assisted suicide—medically available options in an increasing number of countries, and states in the U.S. But as with many other unethical practices, simply making the case for their wrongness is...
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