This morning my son came into our room, upset because something he had built had broken.

One of the secrets of successful businesspeople is, invariably, balance between their personal and professional lives.

Twelve-year-old me didn’t get it. I remember sitting in Mrs. Agar’s sixth-grade religion class at St. Monica’s Elementary School, listening to her teach us the story about how the Israelites were being bitten by poisonous snakes in the desert and God instructed Moses to mount an image of a snake on a pole and any Israelites who looked upon it would be healed—and how it foreshadowed the cross of Christ.

Grandma was in her glory because her grandchildren were circled all around her. She gloried in their presence, looking at each fresh-scrubbed face, peering, it seemed, deep down into each of their souls. And she liked what she saw.

It was my first week in my first parish assignment. I got a call from a gentleman that his mother was dying and would I come and anoint her. Even confined to bed, she was a strong, imposing woman. She wanted to tell me her story. So, I listened. 

One day I was walking in downtown Chicago, passing sights so familiar to me that they hardly registered. My progress was interrupted by a group of tourists from a foreign country who had stopped in their tracks and stood pointing and staring at the front of a building across the street from us.

During my early years in Catholic publishing, an art director once laughed at an editor’s artwork suggestion, saying: “Listen, you can’t illustrate what isn’t there!” It’s like that old joke: Whoever’s not here, raise your hand!

Have you seen the T-shirt that says, “God’s not finished with me yet”? Maybe that’s the souvenir Jesus should have bought the disciples after they went up the mountain with him and saw him revealed in all his glory.

A new parent quickly learns that when all else fails to soothe a baby, simply cradle the child in your arms. Ah, peace reigns. That technique works on grown-ups as well. 

There’s an old joke about the young man who went to Confession and said he had been experiencing temptations. “Did you entertain them, my son?” asked the kindly confessor. “No, Father,” replied the confused penitent, “but they sure entertained me!”