Have you heard of the Catholic poet, Joyce Kilmer?  First off, despite his name, Alfred Joyce Kilmer was a man. Second, he was a Catholic convert, along with the rest of his family. Kilmer described his conversion beautifully. See below.  Kilmer was probably most famous for his poem, "Trees" --  "I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree." There's a definite ecological/environmental beauty to "Trees," so this poem often gets promoted over Kilmer's more explicitly Catholic poems. I think it's time to showcase some of Kilmer's beautiful Catholic poetry and writing ..read more

Genesis 37:3 is just one of those verses. The translations for it are all over the place:  According to the King James Version, Genesis 37:3 reads, "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours." According to the New American translation, "Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long ornamented tunic."  According to Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, it's the "Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"! So which is it? Did Joseph have a "long ornamented tu ..read more

Have you every thought about Near-Death experiences (NDEs) occurring in the Bible? I have! When you start looking, you realize they are all over the Bible. I've been working on this a lot for a new book I have coming out through Sophia Institute Press entitled Catholic Near-Death Experiences: Accounts of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory from Priests, Popes, and Saints. This article explores the following questions: Did St. Paul actually die and resurrect in the Bible? If so, was St. Paul's account of the "third heaven" a description of his Near-Death Experience?   Near-Death Experiences ..read more

J onah was swallowed into the belly of a whale, right? He was spit onto the shore after three days, but he was alive the whole time.  Wasn’t he? … Wasn’t he? Actually, no. But this helps explain Jesus' mysterious prophecy about the “Sign of Jonah” ... Do you remember Jesus’ mysterious prophecy about the “Sign of Jonah”? Here is Luke 11:29–32 (also Matthew 12:38-42):  When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the men of Nin′e ..read more

Water is a powerful symbol in many of the world’s best-selling novels and C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series, which comprises seven exciting and deeply meaningful stories, is no exception.  Within these works, it does more than serve as a metaphor for a quality or state of mind; it is often the chosen medium that represents a character’s transformation, self-discovery, and maturation. In collaboration with Guest Author, Lottie Westfield Water Symbolism in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia - Table of Contents Table of Contents "A broad river divided itself into two stream ..read more

What was the Star of Bethlehem? What was it really? Was it a comet? What is a supernova? Was it a Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn? People have been fighting about this for 2,000 years.  All this misses the point. There was something much bigger than even Jupiter and Saturn combined with the original Star of Bethlehem.  And, it was all prophesied ...     Here's the key:  Do you remember the Glory Cloud of the Old Testament? The Shekinah? The Shekinah was the Holy Spirit appearing as a tower of fire, lightning, and thunder. It was th ..read more

 Is your New Year's Resolution to reach Catholic Level: EXPERT? Here's how.  Need help balancing prayer and the daily grind? Trying to incorporate prayer into your or your family's hectic routine? Here's how to fit prayer into your life.  Want to learn how to pray the Rosary everyday? Looking for step by step instructions for praying the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and other Catholic prayers?  Catholic Family Prayer Infographics Table of Contents Here are all the prayers your family needs to mark the day with unceasing prayer: Table of Contents So, what s ..read more

I keep hearing about new and old kids' shows and movies adding LGBTQ characters, storylines, etc. Or for the full, incoherent, and current alphabet soup abbreviation: LGBTQIA+.  Honestly, years ago, my family started weaning ourselves off constant TV shows and movies. TV and movies still leak into the cracks, though, when we are visiting friends, the dentist's office, etc. We will still have family movie night, of course--so many classics to show the kids!  But it's still good to know and to help others know. Please help me with this list! Comment below with new and old shows and mov ..read more

I thought I would put together this list of the levels of demonic activity. The right vocabulary can be really important here, even for laymen such as myself, but sometimes it's hard to find. As Fr. Amorth writes, "There are few books on the subject and a lack of common language."  First off, who is Fr. Gabriele Amorth? He was the chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome. He died on September 16, 2016, but, while he lived, was perhaps Public Enemy No. 1 to Satan. Fr. Amorth was also responsible for training many other exorcist priests and exorcist associates, like Adam Blai.  More than ..read more

Forgive me, but I've been a big fan of zombie movies, books, and comic books for a long time. I think it started after watching George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) with my dad. We loved watching movies together.  The last voicemail I received from my dad, before he died, was a whispered voicemail from a movie theater. He had just learned they were re-making Dawn of the Dead. He was so excited to tell me.     It's not often that the Catholic world and the zombie world intersect. That's part of the reason I wrote the Catholic zombie apocalypse. Four volumes so f ..read more