M. Regina Cram

To all mothers with sons:

An annoying bell keeps ringing. Who makes that kind of racket at 2:30 a.m.? As you emerge from sleep, you realize it’s the telephone. You answer it groggily, scarcely remembering the conversation afterward. Someone needs to be anointed. Right away.

M. Regina Cram

I was nearly out of my mind. I was in a meeting for an important project, but one person on the committee was driving everyone crazy. This lady jiggled her leg, tapped her foot, paced around the room and, when called on, seemed distracted and scattered. She acted as if she had Attention Deficit Disorder, a difficulty in focusing and organizing one’s thoughts, usually associated with school-age children. I knew she had even tried medication to treat the problem but nothing helped. Instead, she just drove everyone crazy.

Father Michael F.X. Hinkley
Between life and death, there is the hard-to-accept experience of dying. A dying person can know that death is near without accepting the dying process. It’s not uncommon to hear the soft and tired voice of a dying person adrift in question: “I’m ready to go, why won’t God take me now?”

M. Regina Cram

"Suffering shapes our souls. It’s like fire: it molds our souls to what God wants us to be.” – Tierney Cram, age 17

The young priest stood before the assembled mourners, calm but anguished. “Why did my cousin have to die?” he said quietly. “That’s what people keep asking me. Why did she have to die? God could have saved her. Why didn’t he?”

In 1998, a newsletter that ran under the banner of New Mexicans for Science and Reason carried a news item that was guaranteed to arouse antireligious sentiment. It claimed that the state of Alabama had voted to change the value of pi (π) from 3.14159 . . . to the “biblical value” of 3.0.

Father Michael F.X. Hinkley

Not long ago, a poll revealed that 66 percent of Connecticut residents believe the death penalty is a proper punishment for the crime of murder.

Jesús muchas veces habló sobre temas polémicos y no evitó enfrentarse a temas impopulares. Él abiertamente declaró su relación con el Padre sin suavizar la verdad con expresiones ambiguas. Jesús claramente dijo que era Hijo de Dios, perdonó los pecados, afirmó que existía desde antes que Abraham, dijo que si destruían el templo de su cuerpo Él lo reconstruiría al tercer día y habló de la resurrección de los muertos. Jesús también dijo claramente que quien coma su cuerpo y beba su sangre estará especialmente unido a Él y Él lo resucitaría el último día (Jn 6,22-59). Cuando las personas protestaron por lo absurdo de estas palabras, Él no dijo que estaba hablando en metáforas sino que confirmó inequívocamente lo dicho.

Francesco has a problem that sets him apart from society. He’s not like the rest of us and that’s disturbing.