New Year's Resolutions and Retrospects

Those days I set aside to read some spiritual work for no reason other than my own edification, especially if I vow also to let a football game play just over the crown of my book, those are the days I end up not getting to sit down for a moment until the day itself is all spent and it is time to join the family for dinner.

This feast of Mary, the Mother of God, has been one of those days.

I can still share a few thoughts, prospective and retrospective, however.  This site is dedicated to providing a place where the interested reader can come across my published work, wherever it happens to appear, and so it seems appropriate to mention some incidental details in that regard.  If current paces continue, sometime in the coming year, I should publish my two-hundredth poem in a magazine, my two-hundredth essay, and my one-hundredth book review.

I got to read quite a bit this last year.  If you click the F below, you will find a short list of three big, chunky books that I recommend you include in your reading this coming year.  It is included in First Things magazine's annual year in books feature.

Robert Royal asked authors at The Catholic Thing to provide their predictions for the coming year and decade.  I was happy to oblige, nay, joyful.  Click the TCT to hear from many authors, including yours truly, who believes that, in defiance of fate, we are "Destined for Joy."

One prospect about which I am particularly hopeful is the continued work of the Colosseum Institute.  As we prepare for our second annual Colosseum Summer Institute, to be held at Villanova University, this June, I invite you to explore our work by clicking the Colosseum below.  Join us in June!  Or support our work, so that we can provide scholarships for worthy applicants.