by Mitchell Kalpakgian | According to Chauntecleer, books are the final authority of truth. Pertelote, who stays below in the farmyard, views the subject of dreams exclusively in terms of personal experience. Never in her life does she remember a dream that came true.

by John Clark | As I have written previously, on the nights when I’m able, I like to watch the show Jeopardy and try to amaze my kids with my knowledge. (These are the kinds of things you do when you’re old—you get exhausted by failing to impress the world, so you spend your evenings in front of a television set in the hopes of dazzling your offspring.)

by Mitchell Kalpakgian | Listening to the talk shows on television every night, watching athletic events all day Saturday and Sunday, and spending hours on the Internet do not organize the day, deserve priority, or require the discipline of will power. They do not breathe life, nourish the mind, or lift the soul. A person does not need more time to do these essential things but a greater desire to do first things first.

by Mitchell Kalpakgian | The whole episode made no sense to him, and he was at a loss for some possible explanation for his great frustration. The only comfort his mind offers is the knowledge that the accident was not a great tragedy. He acknowledges with gratitude the escape from other “torments and evils to which even this wasted wine would have seemed a wretched jest.”

by Marc Postiglione | One of my fondest and earliest memories of childhood is the way we as a family celebrated Sunday. Sunday always started with morning Mass. We were not a sleep late family and were out the door for 9:00am Mass.

by Thomas J. Centrella | The foundation of this country is the Constitution. It is the mind of the nation. The cornerstone of this foundation is the Declaration of Independence.

So often in human life we wonder if someone is going to call, coming to visit, or going to write us a letter. We assume that we are to expect, ...

Pope Francis: "There is another form of poverty! It is the spiritual poverty of our time, which afflicts the so-called richer countries particularly seriously. It is what my much-loved predecessor, Benedict XVI, called the ‘tyranny of relativism,’ which allows everyone to create his own criterion and endangers the coexistence of peoples. But there is no true peace without truth.”

How easy it is to neglect these amenities of manners that consist of attention to seemingly minor things of no consequence: a thank you note, a compliment, a visit. How convenient it is to use the excuse of busyness with important affairs to avoid attention to small details.

As someone who has been teaching high school and college now for more than fourteen years, it has become life’s daunting task to motivate students. In an age of instant communication, a teacher needs to be able to convey subject material in a way that is both ever dramatic and always engaging. It used to be a concern to worry about a bad day; now, one has to worry about an un-engaging minute.

Contemplation is a form of looking inspired by wonder that moves a person to continue looking at a great work of art or to remain thinking about a great idea, divine miracle, or mystery.There is so much to see or know that one lingers to see more and to think more deeply.

Families grapple with discipline in the home. Ginny Seuffert tackles an aspect of it by making etiquette part of and not an obstacle to homeschooling.

I have known Catholic families and I know how much light they were in the 1950’s. One family I knew as a seven-year-old boy touched me by the very fact that the father of the family led the Grace of the meal with the Sign of the Cross and the prayer asking for God’s blessing. A small thing, but small things speak to pure hearts.

This great design of awaiting the next pleasure forms the master plan of life designed by a wise Creator who orients man toward the future with hope. No one ever truly wants to return to the past or dreams of recovering the fountain of youth.

Words, like music, can create harmony or discord. Words, like certain fine instruments, can refine and beautify or, like blunt tools, can break and smash. The art of living requires sensitivity to the choice of words, to the tone of voice, and to the manner of speech.

It is possible to take many things too seriously. Coaches and athletes can take winning too seriously (It’s only a game). The avaricious and the miserly who worship gold take money too seriously (It’s only metal or paper). Politicians can take elections and political power too seriously (They are not the salvation of the world). Scholars can take learning too seriously and presume that man is god and that human knowledge supersedes divine wisdom (“Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out,” Solomon states in Ecclesiastes).

Sometimes it seems like the work for Mom is never ending in our large Catholic families. By Thanksgiving, the first quarter assignments have been completed and the homeschooling is clipping along nicely. Then Bang! Along comes the Christmas season, doubling the work load but halving the class time! It’s more than a little discouraging!

I am convinced – utterly convinced – that if we all got together more often in order to celebrate the simple occasions in life, we would be a happier people. Each generation seems to be growing more and more isolated than the generation that preceded it. American society is fast becoming an isolated society.

The weather is changing and the holiday season is upon us. Decorations have been up in stores for weeks, a bright mishmash of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas displays to entice the consumer to buy, buy, buy. It’s so easy to get caught up in the hoopla and the craziness and lose the true meaning of what we are celebrating.

In Kenneth Graham’s The Wind in the Willows Mr. Toad, the owner of Toad Mansion and the great traveler on the Open Road who is always on a new vehicle going to faraway places, cannot comprehend how Mr. Rat can find contentment in a simple cottage on the river where he dwells all year and never explores the wider world of new sights and foreign lands: “You surely don’t mean to stick to your dull fusty river all your life, and just live in a hole in a bank, and boat. I want to show you the world.”