On the Nightstand: September 2015

A dear friend and I met when I was on a team for some sessions to help people discerning a return to Catholicism. Since that time, she’s married in the Church, and she and her husband have a beautiful baby girl. She once told me that one of the key motivators for her return was… Continue reading On the Nightstand: September 2015

On the Nightstand: August 2015

As someone who didn’t have a faith life for decades (and coauthor of a book for parish leaders on setting up programs to help back “away” Catholics), I’m always interested in hearing or reading about others who left the Church, why they came back, and what the Lord has set them on fire to do… Continue reading On the Nightstand: August 2015

On the Nightstand: July 2015

Dorothy Day. Frances Perkins, our country’s longest serving labor secretary.  St. Monica–and her son, St. Augustine of Hippo– along with George C. Marshall, Samuel Johnson, and others. New York Times columnist and pundit David Brooks‘ new book looks at what he calls our “eulogy” virtues: kindness, bravery, honesty, or faithfulness. As you can tell by… Continue reading On the Nightstand: July 2015

On the Nightstand: June 2015

I’m headed for central South Dakota later this month–Oacoma, to be exact, a town of about 450 people that’s nineteen miles from where my great-grandparents homesteaded and twenty-five miles from where my father grew up. We’re having a Rigney family reunion, the first I’ve ever attended. And so, it seemed like the perfect time to… Continue reading On the Nightstand: June 2015