I have a big box of bookmarks from all over the world. I love to read, and as I begin a new book I enjoy selecting just the right bookmark—one with an appropriate color, design, and theme.
Category Archives: Stories and Excerpts
Spiritual Direction: The Ordinary Way
Here’s an excerpt from my new book Same Old, Same New: The Consolation of the Ordinary. It’s an imagined conversation between a spiritual director, Father Zachary, and his directee, Philip.
Embracing the Child, Part Seven: How to Handle Little Brats
On a visit to my aunt and uncle as a teenager, one day I was left to babysit my two young cousins.
Embracing the Child, Part Six: Acquiring a Child’s Heart
Currently I’m at work on a novel—a sci-fi/fantasy about angels and aliens—and while writing this essay I noticed that my story actually contains all the gateways to childhood that I’ve been describing.
Embracing the Child, Part Five: The Childhood of Faith
If childlikeness were a country, it would have many border crossings.
Embracing the Child, Part Four: Recovering Our Childhood
When my daughter was four years old I caught her standing on a chair and reaching up into the medicine cabinet to get a bottle of pills. Is this a picture of you?
Embracing the Child, Part Three: Join the Infantry!
There was a time in church history when the highest service one could offer the Lord was to be a Soldier of Christ.
Embracing the Child, Part Two: Fear of Ice Cream
My first trip overseas was to London, where I drank in the sights and sounds, the cobbled laneways and old buildings, the galleries upon galleries, like a man who had just crawled out of the desert.
Embracing the Child, Part One: Weary Willy’s Smile
Happy 2024! How better to greet this new year than with a reflection on childhood—or more specifically, on childlikeness?
Commotion! — A Brand New Christmas Story!
Here it is, folks—my brand new Christmas story for 2023! Suitable for reading around the tree on Christmas Eve …