I wanted to talk about excitement and adventure. What better way to spark interest in Christ’s mountaintop Transfiguration? The Holy Spirit had other plans.

When "oh-so-deep" feelings turn into "oh-so-deep" resentments.

The population density of my county is 1.7 people per square mile. The closest barber is an hour away.

What comes to mind when you hear the word, light?

Rugged men make good heroes. Or do they?

The farmhouse stands proud atop a slight hill just north of a small village in west-central Ohio. It has sheltered descendants of the same family for over 150 years.

My favorite part of the Angelus was when we all bowed our heads...like chickens scouting for bugs in the barnyard.

Question: “Why is Kansas a lot like Heaven?” Answer: “Because it goes on forever!”

The maps we carried were hard to read. Trail markers were scarce. When we lost our bearings, we had no choice but to press on.

The message on the billboard proclaimed, "Church Should be Fun!" I shook my head, "What garbage!"

You can take the boy off the farm, but not the farm out of the boy.

The Word of God does more than echo within our minds and souls, it resounds within forests and stadiums, rumbles like traffic amid sky-scrapers and apartment buildings. It forms farms from the soil of the earth and assembles factories from the labor of workers.

She rushes to the shelves to rummage through piles of hand-me-downs. “Mira! Mira!” The word means “Look!,” but today it sounds more like “Miracle!”

"Looks like we'll be renting an apartment," says Travis. "Interest rates are mighty high right now."

Water can carry ships, flood a city and, when pressurized, cut through stone like a child's finger through a piece of cake.

The elderly woman praying a rosary in the front pew of church? Her daughter is married to Ernest Hemingway’s son. The district judge who serves on the pastoral council? He was General Schwarzkopf’s driver during the first Iraq war.

Is the water in the creek safe for my cattle to drink? Will customers buy tomatoes at my roadside stand? Why are my chickens laying purple eggs?

I was fired up. I could hear conviction in my voice and felt intensity in my glare. But, as often happens when I assume the role of teacher, the instructor learned more than the students.

When I was a boy, my grandmother lived on a farm across the road from my parents’ farm. Like all grandmothers, she was the best grandmother in all the world.

Today, I shook Jesus’ hand. Well, kind of…