Bishop Sheen tells us that we will have three surprises in Heaven. The first surprise: We will be surprised to see that many people we expected to be in Heaven are not there. St. John of the Cross gives the reason why they are not there: “At the evening of our life,...

According to an old fable, a man made an unusual agreement with Death. He told the Grim Reaper that he would willingly accompany him when it came time to die, but only on one condition – that Death would send a messenger well in advance to warn him. Weeks turned into...

A colleague asked C.S. Lewis if he really thought he could change God with his prayer for the cure of his wife’s cancer. Lewis replied: "Prayer doesn't change God; it changes me." William McGill summed it up this way. "The value of persistent prayer is not that God...

A true story is told about an advertising executive at Reader’s Digest, who found her emptiness filled in by prayer, listening to God, as Mary did in today’s Gospel. In spite of her successful career, she had felt emptiness in her life. One morning, during a breakfast...

Niemoeller was a German Lutheran pastor who was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp in Dachau in 1938. Amazingly, he survived the prison camp experience and was set free by the Allied Troops in 1945. Out of that horrible experience, Niemoeller...

One leader in the Old Testament who possessed both expressive and instrumental leadership abilities was Josiah (2 Kings 22-23). King Josiah was a great leader. When he came to the throne of Judah at age eight, the nation was essentially pagan. Heathen altars stood on...

Throughout the history of the Church , God has made the power of the Eucharist clear in many ways. For example, some of the saints have gone for long periods of their lives in which their only food was the Eucharist. I know it sounds hard to believe. If there were...

Three Russian monks lived in a faraway Island. Nobody ever went there. However, one day their bishop decided to make a pastoral visit to learn more about their religious life. But when he arrived he discovered that they did not know even the Lord’s Prayer. So he spent...

If in 1968 someone had asked which country would dominate watch-making in the 1990s, most people would have said Switzerland. This is because Switzerland had dominated the world of watch- making for the previous sixty years. They led the search for new ways to...

A beautiful old story tells of how Jesus, after his Ascension into Heaven, was surrounded by the Holy Angels who began to inquire about his work on earth. Jesus told them about His birth, life, preaching, death and Resurrection, and how he had accomplished the...

Everyone, it seems, is interested in my numbers. I go to the grocery store to buy some groceries. After the checkout woman rings up my bill, I pull out my checkbook and write out the check. She takes it from me. She looks at the information. Numbers tell her where I...

Fr. Mark Link S.J. once told an incident that happened during the great depression (AD 1929-1939). Jobs were scarce, and when an opening was announced, dozens of applicants applied. On this particular occasion, they crowded into a waiting room, eager to be interviewed...