Written On Our Hearts Blog

I’ve known since I was in first grade that my stay in purgatory will probably be quite long (and I believe my reservation at the Suffering Suites hotel is getting longer day by day, but never mind that for now). As I remember, the earliest ser…

I was sitting on a tepid bleacher at Pohlman Field in Beloit, Wisconsin on the evening of September 8th, the feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, watching a Beloit Snappers playoff game. To be honest, although I’d been to Mass earlie…

It was always around this time of year that my mom would take us back to school shopping, dedicating one whole day each to myself, my brother, and my sister. She would take us on a grand excursion to various malls, office supply shops and department…

Just over a month ago, I underwent open-heart surgery, it was the third heart surgery I’ve had and hopefully the last one I’ll need. My previous surgeries happened before I turned two years old, so needless to say I don’t remember …

In a pivotal moment during the stop motion animated film Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the humbled and seemingly defeated Winter Warlock exclaims, “I really am a mean and despicable creature at heart you know. It is so difficult to really cha…

It was a hot Chicago summer day four years ago. I was at Navy Pier deciding what to do. My friends had just left on a four-hour Segway tour of the city that I was unable to accompany them on because of some physical limitations that I have. I had so…

From the moment, his cleats crossed over the foul line on April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson was verbally assaulted and targeted maliciously by fastballs. Racist managers taunted him, his teammates shunned him and opposing players regularly attempted to…

Last year on Palm Sunday I attended Mass at my parish, St. Francis de Sales. At that time we had the privilege of having as our Pastor then “Bishop-elect” David Malloy. A few short weeks later, He became the Bishop of Rockford, but on Pa…

One of my favorite contemporary Christian worship songs to meditate upon is Worlds Apart by Jars of Clay. It speaks to our unconquerable struggle with sin and despite our best human efforts to live a life of grace we still come up miserabl…

The erosion of “absolute truth” in American society is a growing problem. For the past few weeks, I have been reflecting upon this in the wake of a bold statement made by President Obama during his second inauguration address. He said th…