As I stood in line for confession, folding and unfolding the little slip of paper I had written my sins on, asking the Lord to tell me if I had forgotten anything – the words of the Confiteor came to me:   “…in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, […]

They called it the MEATBALL DEATH STAR:  5 pounds of ground beef wrapped around a mixture of cheese tortellinis, sautéed sweet peppers and onions; a fluffy cloud of garlic mashed potatoes; a woven cloak of bacon, spaghetti sauce and grated cheese.  Six teenagers gathered at my house and cooked the thing for a Saturday afternoon […]

I’m not sure how it happened, but somewhere along the line, our constitutional right to “the pursuit of happiness” has come to mean, “if it feels good, do it!” and too bad for anyone else who gets hurt in the process. Lust is everybody’s favorite deadly sin.  The fact that it’s called “deadly” makes it […]

A lady once tried to rationalize her out-of-control temper to her pastor.  “It’s no big deal,” she said.  “I blow up, and then it’s all over.” “So does a shotgun,” he replied, “and look at the damage it leaves behind!” Anger is a deadly sin because it leads to other sins.  That’s why Jesus, in […]

If you’re meditating on Psalm 38 with me this week, notice how well it fits someone struggling with envy: “thy arrows have sunk into me” (vs 2); “my wounds grow foul and fester” (vs 5); “Lord, all my longing is known to thee” (vs 9). Week 3:  Psalm 38 — “From the sin of envy, […]

“Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough,” wrote the Dutch crime novelist Janwillem van de Wetering. This week I’m looking at the sin of greed, making it the basis of an examination of conscience and pairing it with the second penitential psalm in my lenten […]