“It was a dark and stormy night…” so begins my favorite childhood book, “A Wrinkle in Time.”  My third-grade teacher read Madeleine L’Engle’s award-winning story to the class; I can clearly remember drawing scenes from the book as she read aloud.  ...
Read full story »

It’s getting close. One week away.  St. Patrick’s Day falls smack in the middle of a month of madness.  Growing up an Irish Catholic in Northwest Indiana, March was a month of basketball, snow and celebration.   The Hannons did St. Patrick’s Day right.  We gath...
Read full story »

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone,...
Read full story »

What are you giving up for Lent?   This inevitable question comes each year from a variety of sources: my children, friends, strangers who see the ashes on my forehead on Ash Wednesday...all curious to know the sacrifice I am making for 40 days.   For several decades of my life, the ans...
Read full story »

What makes a church or school home?   I grew up attending Mass each week at St. Mary Parish in Kouts, Ind., a tiny town on the outskirts of the Chicagoland area: the same church my ancestors helped build after a tornado destroyed the original building in the early 1900’s. My grandmother...
Read full story »

    For more than four decades I have visited the eye doctor annually.  I have had the same conversation over and over:       Eye Doctor: Read the lowest line you can see. Me: E.   I was the unlucky winner of the genetic lottery, inheriting the family &#...
Read full story »

I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy Down in my heart (Where?) Down in my heart (Where?) Down in my heart...   This song has been on replay in my head the last few weeks.  The word “joy” resonates in this holy Advent season. It’s literally everywhere, from the decorati...
Read full story »

“If every person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary - the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may...
Read full story »

Recently, while watching our older son dance and sing on stage while dressed as the most hideous bride one has ever seen, one comment -whispered in the darkness of a small theater - caused my husband to shake with laughter.   “He gets that from me.”   We throw the comment aro...
Read full story »

One of my most enjoyable tasks as assistant editor of The Message is meeting new people throughout the Diocese of Evansville.  Each week brings with it the opportunity to sit and listen as people tell their stories.  Young or old, it never fails to amaze me how quickly two strangers can f...
Read full story »