Do you know much about Saints Simon and Jude? No? Maybe that is how they would prefer it. Today, Fr. Steve speaks about these two of the 12 Apostles, their "zeal," and their role of disappearing into the mission of the Church.

Anyone familiar with the poetry of Robert Frost recognizes his abiding encounters with nature. Whether you find it in the “black branches up a snow white trunk” from Birches, the “easy wind and downy flake” of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, or the “leaves ripened to the fall” in October, you are sure to step away from your reading with the faint smell of musty earth. For me, Frost’s poems are nostalgic. They place me in the quiet of childhood, forgetful of time, and outside for hours on end. Over weeds and under trees, across pastures and against the wind, Frost captures the undomesticated me who has somehow, over time, become the careworn me. But in his nostalgia, Frost is (as Lionel Trilling once asserted) terrifying. Quietly, insidiously, this old poet coaxes me into boyhood places and then strips away my defenses to face the man I have…

2020 has been a year of upheaval for families with regard to their children’s education and formation. While many children continue to attend school at least partly online, some families have decided to step into full-time homeschooling, and all Christian parents have had to reckon with reduced access to local religious education programs. However, this disruption, difficult as it is, does have the potential to effect positive change, with families rediscovering the domestic church and their roles within it, and with parents recognizing new options for providing a strong education for their children. So, it is particularly good timing to see the appearance of Sally Clarkson’s newest book, Awaking Wonder: Opening Your Child’s Heart to the Beauty of Learning. Sally is the author of The Lifegiving Home and, with her husband Clay, the co-founder of Whole Heart Ministries, which focuses on encouraging Christian discipleship and formation…