Abraham's Journey
By Charlie Johnston Five things I’m pondering… Inversion of Church and State A bizarre dispute has arisen between the State of Florida and Miami Catholic Archbishop Thomas Wenski over Catholic school vaccine mandates, which the State of Florida forbids schools to mandate. What is bizarre about it is that the state’s Attorney General, James Uthmeier, is […]
Read More Enough is EnoughBy Charlie Johnston It was a banner July for our little community here at A Sign of Hope. We were right about every aspect of Covid – and were one of the earliest to get it right. We didn’t use weasel words; we were full-throated about it. It absolutely gobsmacked me that, during the depraved […]
Read More Chickens Coming HomeBy Charlie Johnston Two months ago I had a mystical experience. It concerns present times. It came upon me suddenly, with no forewarning. But it was mystical, so take it with whatever grain of salt you will. For most such things, I just tell my Priests so there is a contemporaneous record. Usually, I am […]
Read More The Full Armor of GodBy Charlie Johnston One of the devil’s most brilliant successes has been to embed the pharisaical instinct deeply into the human psyche. Few want the mundane honor of being God’s good servant, preferring the romantic drama of being God’s enforcer. The latter is the wide gate that leads to destruction while, as Christ said, the […]
Read More One Bread, One BodyBy Charlie Johnston When St. John Paul II died my father, then a Protestant Pentecostal Pastor, cried. When I asked him why it affected him so deeply, he told me that, from his perspective, John Paul had climbed up onto the cross with Jesus and stayed there with Him until Jesus called him home…that it […]
Read More Signs of Hope, Signs of ContradictionBy Charlie Johnston When I was running a group of Chicago-area weekly newspapers, I occasionally brought volunteers in to run polls on heated local races, under my supervision. It worked out well. The furthest we were ever off from the final result was less than 3 points. There is a bona fide science to classic […]
Read More We Were Polling Along…By Charlie Johnston The feud between Pope Leo and President Trump is dominating a lot of Catholic headlines these days. Many are saying that the Pope has gone completely political and is outside of any legitimate authority he has. Others argue that faithful Catholics must do whatever the Pope says (God forbid he ever starts […]
Read More Appearance and Reality: The Triumph is on the HorizonBy Charlie Johnston I am repeating my traditional story of Good Friday today, “Epitaph.” But first I want to recall one of the two most odd Easter Masses I have ever participated in. It was 20 years ago at a parish in the far north suburbs of Chicago, a different one than I would usually […]
Read More Imitate HimBy Charlie Johnston I spent most of my life in various parts of the often-frozen northern states of Illinois and Colorado. Right now, I am housebound in Texas…not out of any infirmity, but because we had a decent ice and snowstorm outside. I chuckle because, objectively, what we got (about an inch and a half […]
Read More Thoughts From the Texas TundraBy Charlie Johnston I fretted a LOT before I published my last piece, Training for Trust. I could feel the desperate, crying need from so very many people who were dealing with agonizing personal and family issues. Many of those suffering are people I, personally, like and admire. I often use examples from my own […]
Read More Fire From Above – Candid Self-Assessment
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