My nightstand/book repository.

If you’re like me and you love to read books, when do you find the time?

Between the demands of my job, home responsibilities to my wife and four kids between the ages of 19 and 6, and watching the Red Sox go down the tubes yet again, the best time to crack open some brain food always seems to be between 11:30pm and 2am. Yes, that 7am alarm is often an uninvited guest.

Always perusing our bookshelves for the next piece of literature I can spend the next couple of weeks with, I embark on the new read, put that down (not because it’s not a good book but because you can pick it up again anytime, right?), grab another book, start it up, put it down for later, open another, and … before I know...READ MORE

FINISH LINE. Father Matthew Ruhl reaches Key West after his 5,052-mile cycling trek to increase awareness about poverty in America.

UPDATE: MISSION COMPLETED

On Saturday, Sept. 4, Jesuit Father Matthew Ruhl and his 11 fellow cyclists finished their Cycling for Change 99-day odyssey across the United States when they reached the southernmost tip of our country in Key West, Fla.

To make it official, Father Ruhl touched his bike’s tire to the buoy marking the southernmost point in the continental U.S.

But their 5,025-mile journey to bring attention to Catholic Charities USA’s Campaign to Reduce Poverty didn’t end there. After a little celebration at the spot, they got back on their bikes and rode to the St. Francis and St. Bede homeless shelters in Key West, which are run by Catholic Charities of Miami.

“That was a...READ MORE

Who knew Harvard University was a vocation encourager?

Mary Anne Marks graduated summa cum laude this last semester from Harvard and will be entering the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor, Mich.

But she’s not the only one going from Harvard to religious life, as Marks shared with Kathryn Jean Lopez in an interview this week: “A couple of years ago, a young man who finished Harvard in three years entered the seminary in St. Louis. A little further back, a young woman who attended Harvard and lived in the same women’s residence that I did joined the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal. One of my friends, whom I met while she was pursuing a degree at Harvard’s...READ MORE

It’s that time of year again: Dorm move-in season. This academic year, the technology and dorm accessories students are bringing to campus seem to be in the over-the-top category, as this blog post chronicles.

Sure, a huge flat-screen TV will make you popular, the laptop with help you get your papers done, a fancy cell phone can connect you to family and friends, and that iPad or e-reader can keep you from lugging books across the quad. (That’s not to say that the latest gadgets can’t keep you plugged in to the faith, as we detailed in our recent feature “iCatholic.” You can even send/receive faith-filled text messages.)

The point is that those aren’t the most important must-have...READ MORE

It was nothing short of providential to be part of two amazing Catholic conferences last week — the Catholic Marketing Network/Catholic Writers Conference in Philadelphia and the Catholic New Media Celebration in Boston.

Just to get it on the table, I’m not really a conference guy. But it was impossible not to get charged up spending time with both current colleagues and the bloggers and podcasters I previously had only read and heard.

Philadelphia and Boston — the cradle of Liberty — were perfect to recapture that revolutionary spirit, only this time the revolution is missionary. It’s about setting captives free.

In Philadelphia, along with Rick Hinshaw, editor of The Long Island...READ MORE

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign decided today that Kenneth Howell will be allowed to teach Catholicism courses again.

According to the Alliance Defense Fund, which has been representing Howell in the matter, “the University of Illinois Office of University Counsel admits no wrongdoing on the part of the university but states, ‘The School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics will be contacting Dr. Howell to offer him the opportunity to teach Religion 127, Introduction to Catholicism, on a visiting instructional appointment at the University of Illinois, for the fall 2010 semester. Dr. Howell will be appointed and paid by the university for this adjunct teaching...READ MORE

As we reported in “Register Exclusives” and in our Aug. 1 print edition, Priests for Life has hit the road for Freedom Rides for the Unborn.

And just like the first Freedom Rides for civil rights, this new effort is meeting obstacles, as this CNN iReport indicates.

As Bishop Robert Baker of Birmingham, Ala., said, “It’s important to do all humanly possible to underline the moral gravity of abortion and help women in distress to find alternatives. The Freedom Ride for life is a visible, peaceful expression of concern for the right to life for the unborn. It is in the tradition of Freedom Rides for civil rights in the past.”

Godspeed.

On Wednesday, Bishop Richard Malone of the Diocese of Portland, Maine, celebrated Mass at Portland’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in honor of the state’s first Catholic radio station, reported the diocese’s website.

Broadcasting at 106.7 FM in the Portland area, The Presence Radio Network is “a true example of the laity in action,” according to Bishop Malone.

“Today we celebrate the birth of ‘The Presence,’ a historic moment in launching Catholic radio in Maine, and our prayer, of course, is that God’s presence, the presence of his word, will come to more and more people in our wonderful state through this beautiful lay apostolate,” he said at the Mass.

Local programming will...READ MORE