Effie Caldarola: A random guy walks into a bar …

So, a random guy walks into a bar. No, this isn’t the beginning of a joke. For me, it’s a Lenten meditation.

Brian Pusateri: Jesus wants to pull us from the muddy pit

Life has a way of pulling us into the mud. At one time or another, every person finds themselves sinking into a pit – sometimes of their own making, sometimes through no fault of their own. It could be the weight of addiction, the burden of guilt, the exhaustion of trying to measure up, or the deep sorrow of broken relationships.

Jason Adkins: Catholic professors make the case for marriage, children

Catholic social scientists are doing some of the most important work in the public square making a reasoned case for both state and society to promote marriage and stable two-parent families as important public goods.

Deal with anger before it turns to wrath

A lot of people are angry today, about a lot of different things. Some of that anger is justified. Some of it is not. Thus has it ever been.

My purpose here is not to talk about this or that thing that may make us angry, but to reflect on how we should deal with anger from a spiritual perspective.

Scott P. Richert: Look to the skies: Science, beauty and meaning

One evening, after dinner at a conference in California, their stomachs filled with good food and better wine, a group of mathematicians and physicists went for a stroll on the beach. As they discussed some of the finer points of the papers they and their colleagues had delivered that day, one of them suddenly cried, “Look!” and pointed to the west.

Rachel Lu: Of course science is real, but materialism’s on the ropes

Science is real,” declared The Sign, which for a time seemed to glare at me from almost every house in the neighborhood. I’ve always hated yard signs, but that one redefined “obnoxious.”

Laura Kelly Fanucci: Family is where we learn to serve the least among us

Ask any parent who launched their child only to have them return home or encouraged them through rehab only to watch them relapse.

Ask any adult child who has welcomed their parent into their home as aging, illness or disability demands.

Ask couples who have blended families after divorce or death of a spouse.

Ask families who have weathered unexpected and devastating medical complexities.

Jaymie Stuart Wolfe: Stories untold: Free people of color and the Catholic faith

Black History Month is officially observed every February, but there’s something unfortunate about that. Don’t get me wrong. It’s great to recognize the contributions of Black Americans. But dedicating a specific month to doing so seems to have had the unintended side effect of limiting the recognition they’ve earned to a paltry 28 days of the year.