The Narthex

The parking lot was crammed, so I asked God to provide a car space. Sure enough, I spotted a car leaving and pulled in right after. Sometimes I forget to ask, but it happens anyway because my guardian angel is ever vigilant doing favorable things for me. After shopping, I…

Nine months ago I bought a new high-quality car battery because mine was ten years old and might give up the ghost any day. My auto mechanic honored the aged device as a ‘miracle battery’ for lasting so long. Since I’m now in my eighties and "on borrowed time," I…

Several members of my family were initiated into the worldwide, secretive fraternal organization called Freemasonry, including my deceased father who became a Master of two lodges and rose to 33rd degree in the Scottish Rite. I recall him pacing our living room with a small code book reciting from memory…

Handsome and adventurous, John F. Kennedy Jr. fell into the self-destructive behavior of other men in the Kennedy clan. Fame and fortune have a way of corrupting the soul. In his late 30s, JFK Jr. decided to fulfill his persistent childhood wish to fly a plane. His mother begged him…

I was on my early morning walk to preempt our record heat in San Diego when I spotted an elderly man and woman sweeping their metal detectors over a children’s playground. She wore a wide-brimmed hat and one knee pad. Stopping beside the woman, I asked, “Find anything?” “Little stuff…

When Soviet troops arrived at the Auschwitz complex on January 27, 1945, bewildered prisoners greeted them with tears and embraces, kissing the flaps of their overcoats and hugging their knees. Confused and surprised by the wretched conditions of the camp, the soldiers gruffly asked, “What are you all doing here?”…

In 2008, while I waited in traffic, I heard a horn beep and looked to see a "thumbs up" by a young driver. She was praising the sticker posted on my rear window: One Man, One Woman for Life. That was when Proposition 8, banning all homosexual marriages, was approved…

The number seven seems to have special status, as seen in mathematics, engineering science, natural history, psychology, and elsewhere. Our civilization counts seven continents, seven seas, seven wonders of the ancient world, and seven heavens. Western musical scales are composed of seven distinct notes that Pythagoras (c. 500 BC) studied…

The 13th-century invention of the mechanical clock dramatically changed the pace of civilization. "There are few greater revolutions in human experience," historian Daniel Boorstin writes, "than this movement from the seasonal or 'temporary' hour to the equal hour. Here was man's declaration of independence from the sun, a new proof…

Many saints, performers of wondrous deeds, fortified themselves with silent, prayerful contemplation of infinite Truth -- all in their small, simple cells. Researchers and scientists like the famous inventors Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla also embraced privation, risk, and sacrifice. Much like the saints, they demonstrated the great faith that…

In the early church, reports of Christians healing the sick and raising the dead by prayer were accepted without skepticism or disbelief. In his five-volume series Against the Heresies, St. Irenaeus (c.130-220), Bishop of Lyons, writes, “Some persons that were dead have been raised again and have continued among us…

Former confidants of Hitler did not get out of Germany alive, but Hermann Rauschning did. He later published verbatim private conversations with Hitler between 1932 and 1935, revealing a strategy to gain control of America that would have astonished the Allies. The author’s intimate revelations of Hitler’s personality, describing his…

The need for sacrifice exists in every theater of nature. Life cannot exist and persist without some sacrifice of its components. Stars explode in supernovas to provide gaseous dust and minerals for newborn stars and their offspring in planetary systems. A forest's fallen timbers donate their substance to newly sprouting…

Anthony the Great, known as the father and founder of monasticism, fled to the Egyptian desert in AD 270 at 19 years old. He chose to live as an extreme ascetic, renouncing all pleasure of the senses from rich foods, sex, bathing, and anything tempting his flesh to take its…

A new military weapon is now revolutionizing warfare as did the machine gun and the atomic bomb. Miniature killer drones are inexpensive, more efficient, and silently effective compared to guided missiles that cost 20 times as much. This is not futuristic fiction. The Army is now in Phase III development…