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This summer will be one to remember. The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we live, work, and play. The family life we once knew pre-COVID-19 has been reintroduced in the most positive way. The mandatory lockdown imposed on most of us due to COVID-19 led to shelter-in-place orders that offered opportunities for a family togetherness and bonding capable of birthing a rediscovery of the true essence of family life.

By the last day of school, we were well on our way with plans for our summer vacation. Freedom rang while swinging from willow branches into the cool waters of the Mississippi. We fished from the sandbar, captured crawfish behind Mamere’s, and caught river shrimp during the June Rise, the second annual flood of the spring.

Sixty Italy trips ago, I WAS developing a new concept called Buca di Beppo (Joe’s Basement) with my partners and my wife, Connie. We traveled to Italy frequently while developing the menu, décor, and product sourcing, including wine.

This year we experienced a true Lent! I don’t think many of us have prayed, fasted, and practiced almsgiving during any other Lent in the same way we did this year.

In recent times, our appreciation and dedication for nature and the environment has grown on a global scale. If only we could elevate society’s appreciation for the new life of every human being!

Growing up in St. James Parish in the 1950s, my siblings and I were not aware of the festivities of Mardi Gras 55 miles downriver in New Orleans. All we knew was that when Ash Wednesday rolled around, my mother had all eight of us lined up at the altar rail to get ashes.

My wife Connie and I are members and area councilors for the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (EOHSJ), based in Las Vegas, NV. We are blessed to be making regular trips to our Lord’s homeland in the Holy Land.

In today’s dominating consumer culture, everyone from retailers to entertainers looks for ways to get people to buy their product, even when it is something we had in the past.

As this season of faith, family, and food approaches, I reminisce not only about holiday seasons past, but also about the original Christmas day so many centuries ago. On a 2013 trip to Israel, I had the privilege of standing in Shepherd’s Field, once traversed by Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, still cradled in His mother’s womb.

Thanksgiving Day is about family, food, sharing, and, most of all, love. Although Thanksgiving is considered a secular holiday, the feast day subconsciously evokes love for one another and an overall heartfelt appreciation that transcends our senses.

Praying the rosary is a staple for Catholic family spirituality. The late Fr. Patrick Peyton (aka “The Rosary Priest”) said “the family that prays together, stays together.”

Today’s modern culture emphasizes that what is fastest is best, and what is concise is enough. As you enter these final months of the year, you may be heading back to school, closing out a fiscal year, beginning a new quarter or already thinking about 2020.

Standing on this hallowed ground on the left bank of the Rhine River, I not only thought of my dad and his many comrades; I also remembered that I was in the state of the Rhineland-Palatinate, the area where so many of Louisiana’s German ancestors originated.

Everyone can experience temporal real and true happiness! Our Catholic Faith offers it to all – all we need to do is immerse in it.

All Christians are called to evangelize, which means “to share the Good News.” It’s different from proselytizing, which aims at converting people to one’s faith.

For many of us, memories of our mother are mixed with the aroma and tastes of favorite foods. Thinking of mom recalls the nurturing moments of childhood as she cooked for and fed us when we were hungry or ill.

Fire and cooking catapulted the concept of taste along with nutrition. The late anthropologist Carleton Coon stated that cooking was, “the decisive factor in leading man from a [rudimentary] existence into one that was more fully human.”

It is the customary work of sacrificing, that of giving something up during the Lenten season, that strengthens and disciplines our will so that we are not slaves to pleasure, whether it be material or otherwise. Sacrifice and prayer are key to building good habits, better known as virtues.

Listening is loving. It’s a lost art today. Even with the most advanced communications technology, we don’t know how to listen as people made in God’s image and likeness.

In the course of a year, most of us find ourselves jumping from one project to another, one responsibility to another, and even from place to place without enjoying the fruits of our labors, the blessings we have been graced with, or the wisdom gained from reflection.