Anna Caruso

                Most of us have experienced various kinds of encounters with God.  We have seen Him, for example, in the world of nature.  We have felt His presence under the breathtaking beauty of a starlit night.  We have almost read His signature in the lower right-hand corner of a sunset.  We have heard His voice in the wind as it gently rustles the leaves of a tree.                 We have also met Him inside of our own hearts and minds.  We have felt His comforting presence in times f sorrow and His troubling […]

Every wife, mother or whoever happens to have the responsibility knows that there are two ways to clean house.  One is routine and regular; the other is major and seldom.  In the first, you sweep the floors, vacuum the carpets, wash the dishes, make the beds, secure the bathrooms, and dust the furniture.   The second way includes all of the above but goes a bit further.  You also move the furniture in order to get at the dirt that has accumulated under and behind.  You clean out the refrigerator and throw away all of the moldy food.  You rearrange the […]

Sometimes, I fear that we in Church have become embarrassed by and almost abandoned by the idea of evangelization.  This is not without reason.  Many have seen in recent years a brand of evangelism that is little more than beautifully packaged, slickly marketed religion.  It isn’t surprising that we would disassociate ourselves from religious salesmanship, but we must not make the mistake of throwing out the baby with the bath water.  We need to be reminded that Jesus called people to follow Him and then sent them out to call others to do the same.  On and on it went […]

                  I read of a priest who had an unusual flair for the dramatic.  One Sunday morning, he was preaching a sermon.  He said, “If you don’t read the Scriptures you may as well not even have them.”  Then he started in the beginning of the Bible, did a brief summary of Genesis, and asked, “How many of you have read this book in the past year?”  In the congregation of more than a thousand not a single hand was raised.                  He then gathered up the pages, ripped them out, and […]

In one of our gospels, Jesus is quoted as saying, “On this rock I will build my Church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail against it.” When Jesus made that statement, the Church was just beginning.  It was very small and seemingly insignificant.  But now it reaches around the world and plays a vital role in the lives of millions of people.  Enemies have tried and still try to stop it, but they have failed.  Despite opposition from without and weaknesses from within, the Church has lived and flourished across the centuries. The words of Jesus have come […]