Abraham's Journey
By 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 think I gave the wrong impression when I wrote passionately about Pope Leo’s formulaic statement opposing American action on Iran, where he said that negotiation is the only answer and that violence never solved anything. Both were trite, nice-sounding platitudes that are easily and quickly disproven. But it did not signal […]
Read More Do Whatever He Tells YouBy Charlie Johnston Our community lost one of its charter supporters and friends to begin Lent. Anne Baker passed away at 101 in the assisted living facility where she had been in Florida for the past couple of years on the morning of Ash Wednesday. Anne was the mother of our dear friend and chief […]
Read More TransitionsBy 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-AssessmentBy Charlie Johnston Years ago, when I was visiting Alabama, I went to visit my sister at a Farmer’s Co-Op where she worked as assistant manager. When I got there, they were frantically busy; four registers open and at least three deep waiting at each. My sister had come out to run a register during […]
Read More Training for TrustBy Charlie Johnston (It is Christmas…the Advent Season is over, yet I think it begins the second “week” of the New Advent. I wrote this story 29 years ago. It had an unexpected effect that has been very useful to me over the years. People of deep and ardent faith seem to always love the […]
Read More The Beginning of RedemptionBy Charlie Johnston (I think a lot, these days, of looking back to the manger with the hopeful anticipation that Israel looked forward to the manger. We are almost there for this great celebration this year. What a joy it is! I can’t help but think of it as prelude to 2026, the Year of […]
Read More Almost ThereBy Charlie Johnston It is a peculiarity of modern life that a lot of people have a very superficial knowledge about many things, but no depth of knowledge on anything. Then we have cohorts who have extreme depth of knowledge on certain niche subjects (usually technology) but little general knowledge beyond that. Weirdly, this combination […]
Read More Cast Out Into the DeepBy Charlie Johnston Long ago I saw that, at a decisive moment, our technology would fail. I’m no Luddite. I do not regard technology as either intrinsically evil or intrinsically good. It is just a tool which, like any other tool, can be wielded by its user for either good or evil. But we withhold […]
Read More Prepare For a Great BlessingBy Charlie Johnston Well, the USCCB, which could not bring itself to making a loud, full-throated call to support life, oppose transgender ideology, promote the traditional family and Biblical definition of marriage, has finally found something it can be full-throated about: demanding that American taxpayers cover all expenses for illegal aliens and quit the “indiscriminate […]
Read More Woe to the USCCB (Matthew 23:4)
A Sign of Hope 