Patrick T. Brown

Over at Little House in Chicago , Tess Barber pens a beautiful reflection on her experience as a (relatively) new mother sharing her wisdom and presence with other young moms. She writes: Becoming a mom is so hard, but it's also amazing—and one of my favorite things about it is the loyal bonds of sisterhood that are forged between us as we figure it out together...[In] going to visit my friend the other day, I was passing on the compassion and solidarity that other mothers had extended to me. I am part of a chain of women, extending back as far as humanity, who choose to use our powerful gifts to strengthen the bonds between us. I've been blessed with the most incredible community of mom friends and I felt honored to share with her what they have shared with me. Women have been teaching each other the secrets of caring for children and tips about how to carry baby while making dinner for generations. But there is something so special and personal about building this sense o...

Globe Life Park in Arlington rises out of flat, unimpressive parking lot, sharing an exit of the I-30 with Six Flags Over Texas and the spaceship-like AT&T Stadium. There's something quintessentially Texan about it - space was no object, so building a giant baseball stadium with bas-relief cattle horns on the walls in the middle of nowhere made total sense. Baseball is meant to be an urban game - outfield walls curve and dip to accommodate for city blocks, patrons walk to the box office gates straight from a day at the office. Arlington's  stadium ex nihilo accentuates the artificiality of an "entertainment complex." It's not an outgrowth of a community or a treasured part of downtown - it's a temple that cloaks revenue maximization in the garb of gussied-up nods to tradition.

Fr. Robert Barron speaks about the legacy of a proud son of Chicago and a faithful son of the Church: Cardinal George often signaled his impatience with the term “counter-cultural” in regard to the Church’s attitude vis-à-vis the ambient culture. His concern is that this can suggest a simple animosity, whereas the successful evangelist must love the culture he is endeavoring to address. But he saw a deeper problem as well, namely, that, strictly speaking, it is impossible to be thoroughly counter-cultural, since such an attitude would set one, finally, against oneself. It would be a bit like a fish adamantly insisting that he swims athwart the ocean. Therefore, the one who would proclaim the Gospel in the contemporary American setting must appreciate that the American culture is sown liberally with semina verbi (seeds of the Word).   (via Mark Shea )

Earlier this year, the Ohio State University brought home the national championship in football. Now, the state of Ohio could be again be the national leader, but this time in on a field that is far more important in ensuring that our nation provides opportunity for all. 14.5 percent of Americans are counted as living at or below the poverty line, and a stalemate in Washington means much-needed and substantive reform to the federal programs that are meant to help them achieve their full potential won’t be just around the corner.

Opening Day. The sun shines a little brighter. If baseball was a fairy tale, the narrator would begin: "Once upon a time..." This Opening Day, for one day at the very least, hope beat fiercely in the chest of a region and a team that's looking to bring playoff baseball back to Seattle for the first time since 2001.

March 31, 2015 | Tuesday of Holy Week Isaiah 49: 1-6; John 13:21-33, 36-38 Reflection published by Catholic Charities USA  My mom has always loved taking photographs. She isn’t a professional, but has an eye for composition and loves to document Little League games, school plays, and the everyday activities of family life in creative ways.  One year, my dad bought her an expensive camera as a Christmas present, and that thing was her baby. She got so much enjoyment out of the different settings and capabilities of the high-end equipment. The next spring, I spotted a seagull during a day at the park, and asked to use the camera to take a picture--“Yes, but be careful!” I wasn’t.

This Valentine’s Day weekend, movie screens across the nation will feature film that portrays a distorted understanding what it means to love and be loved. And no, it isn’t 50 Shades of Grey . Sure, the story of a sadomasochistic billionaire is grabbing all the headlines, but the extreme outrageousness of its story means it is, thankfully, far removed from most Americans’ lived reality. But this weekend’s release of The Last 5 Years , a love-and-loss story based on a musical of the same name by Tony-award winner Jason Robert Brown, is a painfully recognizable, small-scale depiction of how our culture’s misunderstanding of love and marriage lead to heartbreak and regret. The show’s conceit has Cathy, to be played by rising Hollywood star Anna Kendrick, singing her story starting with their divorce and working her way backwards, and Jamie, Jeremy Jordan in the movie, singing chronologically from their first meeting and onto the end of their five-year relationship. They s...

Sports have the power to bind communities together. They join strangers in moments of celebration or shared disappointment. They showcase the limits of what the human body can accomplish and stun us with unbelievable feats of finesse, perseverance, power, grace, or agility. Gabby Douglas , Joe Montana , Muhammad Ali , Lou Gehrig, Jesse Owens . Colleges have seen applications go up because of sports. Friendships have turned into marriages because of sports. Wars have been put on pause because of sports. Sports have the power to tear people apart. They divide states, cities, neighborhoods, families based on allegiance to an officially-licensed color palette. They push athletes to the edge of what the human body can accomplish - and over it. Lance Armstrong , Barry Bonds , John Rocker , Joe Theismann . Former stars have been destroyed: Junior Seau .  Donnie Moore . Dave Duerson . Lives can become legend because of sports. Lives can become a living hell because of sports.