May 3, 2022
BOOK: Angels All Around Us: A Sightseeing Guide to the Invisible World (formerly titled The Invisible World) , by Anthony DeStefano (Doubleday, 2011) I usually don’t read books that are sent to me unbidden. Anthony DeStefano’s Angels All Around Us was mailed to me by Priests for Life, an organization I support financially. If I…
My relationship with New York Times best-selling author and speaker Matthew Kelly dates back to 2004 when another New York Times, best-selling author and friend Patrick Lencioni, brought him to my attention as a potential speaker for the Diocese of Oakland’s Catholics@Work (C@W) Speaker Series. Despite Kelly’s very busy schedule, we were able to bring…
I noticed a sea-change in the investment landscape about 10 years ago as family offices, which were relatively unknown to entrepreneurs as a source of capital, expanded from investing solely in investment funds to investing directly in young companies. Family offices provide a wide range of services tailored to meet the needs of high-net-worth individuals,…
I received a copy of Rich Karlgaard’s Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement to review just before it was a published. This book really resonated with me since I have been working with people in transition since 2001 through a parish based ministry. Over 6,000 executives, managers and…
French pediatrician and geneticist Jérôme Lejeune, renown for discovering the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome, was a devout Catholic. As a Catholic, Lejeune thought his historic discovery would lead to a more compassionate approach to children with the syndrome. Instead—to his horror—Lejeune’s famous discovery became a tool used to diagnose Down Syndrome babies in…
A Review of Joe Murphy’s Spiritual Lifeboat. I was introduced to author Joe Murphy by Mary Jo Potter, the former Dignity Health Board Chair and a recent guest on my radio show, THE MENTORS RADIO. Mary Jo suggested we meet due to my work over 20 years helping more than 6,000 professionals navigate their career…
CNA—Few young Catholic Blessed are more popular in the United States than Pier Giorgio Frassati. Numerous ministries, schools, youth camps and awards bear the name of the handsome and wealthy Italian Catholic activist who was equally known for his social justice concerns, his amiable character, his boisterous laughter and his accomplishments as an avid mountaineer.…
The only challenge in reading a compelling new biography of Fr. Aloysius Schwartz, a Washington, D.C. native—entitled Priest and Beggar: The Heroic Life of Venerable Fr. Aloysius Schwartz— is that it seems to transcend reality at times and bring the reader into the realm of mythical superheroes. However, in reading we learn that Aloysius was…
Book reviews of “The Catholic Guide to Miracles” and the “Diary of an American Exorcist” I fully embrace the reality of a spiritual dimension to life. It cannot be proven with science, but it can be observed and for some, experienced. I am grateful for having numerous spiritual guides and experiences over many years that…
Matthew Pinto, Founder and President of Ascension, announced today the sale of the company to Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan Strate, who has become the company’s new owner, president, and CEO. “It has been an extraordinary gift to be able to do the work of evangelization and catechesis as a layman for these 22 years, alongside…
March 17, 2021
I visited Westport Ireland three years ago in search of my grandmother’s (Cahill) birth certificate. It is a beautiful place on the West Coast of Ireland, north of Galway. It lies at the foot of Croagh Patrick which is named in honor of Saint Patrick, the apostle and patron of Ireland and the Irish race.…
OCCatholic—Reading the Bible has had a positive effect on people’s “mental well-being” during the pandemic, according to a Christian Research survey conducted in the United Kingdom. The survey also found that respondents were reading the Bible more and turning to Bible-related videos more during the pandemic. The survey, carried out on behalf of the Bible…
The Pontifical Swiss Guard’s elegant “The Vatican Christmas Cookbook” is infused with the Spirit of Christmas with 100 recipes, stories and pictures that are an integral part of the Vatican Christmas narrative. In this beautifully illustrated book, authors David Geisser and Thomas Kelly have again successfully linked our physical and spiritual needs to food –…
In The Talent War, former Army officer, George Randle, and former Navy Seal, Mike Sarraille, join forces to share their decades of experience in talent acquisition and management. Randle is a strategic advisor to Sarraille’s EF Overwatch, and VP of Global Talent Acquisition for Forcepoint, a human-centric cybersecurity company. EF Overwatch is an executive search…
Popular culture holds a dismissive attitude toward history. Common headlines include “unprecedented times”, “worse than ever”, and “never before.” But how often is that really true? What do we face that is truly without precedent? This mindset—that all things have either escalated or de-escalated, that the present is always somehow more or less than the…
— a review of Ron Rapoport’s “Let’s Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub, the Life of Ernie Banks” — I grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago, so I carried the tag “North Sider” when it came to baseball. And this meant being a Cubs fan in a city divided by the Cubs…
CNA—Fordham Professor Angela Alaimo O’Donnell has studied Flannery O’Connor, an American Catholic author from the South, rather extensively. She wrote a book on O’Connor’s treatment of racial issues specifically, entitled “Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O’Connor.” Petitioning the University When the Fordham professor heard that Flannery O’Connor’s name would be removed from a residence hall…
Here is an interesting Q&A interview with a former Cosmo journalist, who really spills the beans on insider editorial mandates she and others had to follow in crafting articles, and why she wrote her newest book just released by Ignatius Press.. -ed, CBJ “Rather than abandon the word ‘feminism’,” says Sue Ellen Browder, author of…
June 27, 2020
BOOK REVIEW: The Reinvented Leader: Five Critical Steps to Becoming Your Best, by Chuck Bolton (Paperback)
In The Reinvented Leader, author Chuck Bolton shares the wisdom and tools he has developed from working with more than 1,000 executives and 100 top leadership teams. Like Pat Lencioni and Ram Charan, Bolton sees patterns while working across many organizations and
The Mentors Radio, a popular and unique business & ethics radio show now in its Fourth Year, has a new time slot on AM860 The Answer in the San Francisco Bay Area, now airing at 1:00 pm every Saturday. Produced by the Catholic Business Journal, the radio show and radio podcast features three remarkable and…
