A Beacon of Light

“We were seventeen, but we were never their age.”  ~ Unknown I wasn’t planning to write a blog post today. I’ve been preoccupied of late working on another project. While taking a quick look at Facebook to check messages this afternoon, the image above caught my attention and reminded me of this quote. The source of…

“It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.” ~ Ann Landers Two years before the birth of my first son, the world changed — at least, here in the United States. On February 10, 1984, Kevin Collins, a fourth-grade student at Saint Agnes School…

“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” ~ Mark Twain Growing up in San Francisco, two weeks of each summer of my childhood would be spent as a camper at Silver Tree Day Camp, located in Glen Canyon, just a few hundred yards behind Glen Park Playground on Elk Street. My Dad…

“The nice thing about living in a small town is that when you don’t know what you’re doing, someone else does.”~ Immanuel Kant My life could have been much different. The same could be said about anyone’s life. Why was I born into my family of origin and not some other family? Why was I born into a…

“Greatest thing in life: Winning a tennis match.Second greatest thing in life: Losing a tennis match.”~ Jimmy Connors There was a time, many years ago, when tennis was my life. Well, sort of. In the fall of 1967, my St. Gabriel School classmate, Dan Graham, asked me if I would be interested in joining a recreational tennis…

“I absolutely loved being famous. It was all great up until the point when it wasn’t.”~ Noel Gallagher I am not famous, nor would I want to be. Certainly the possibility can appear attractive, but I’ll never forget Joe Montana sharing his frustration with his efforts to attend his son’s Little League baseball games. He…

“I wish I could play Little League now. I’d be way better than before.”~ Mitch Hedberg The word “visualization” is defined as “a technique involving focusing on positive mental images in order to achieve a particular goal.” The practice of visualization has been used in a variety of disciplines through the years. In my childhood, I…

Although I was educated in Jesuit institutions (St. Ignatius College Prep, Santa Clara University, and the University of San Francisco), when leading a group in prayer, either as a classroom teacher, pastoral minister, or presenter at workshops for adults, I liked to begin with the traditional introduction practiced by the Christian Brothers: “Let us remember… that…

“It is not the finest wood that feeds the fire of Divine love, but the wood of the Cross.”~ St. Ignatius of Loyola Growing up in an Irish Catholic family, I heard many of the same pearls of wisdom being shared in households of faith across the globe. One of my mother’s favorite sayings, which she would…

“Bearers of gratitude make the world a better place.” ~ Pope Francis I try not to get too religious in my blog posts, but today is a special day — Holy Thursday. On this day each year, the Church enters into the most sacred three-day period of the liturgical calendar: the Triduum. It can be a bit confusing,…