Few motion picture scenes are more horrifying than the large raptor dinosaur ransacking a commercial kitchen to devour two children. I remember clearly my terror watching that episode in “Jurassic Park” (1993). The idea that a reptile can hunt down and consume mammals is abhorrent but alas, I can’t say no to Komodo Dragon nature videos...

Years ago I offered Mass regularly in Spring Branch at a decades-old residential facility designed like a wagon wheel. Its pretentious name meant nothing. Everyone branded it a nursing home. Quite a few called it the Linoleum Club. Of course it looked seedy and reeked. Most residents there were poor and struggled with pain and serious cognitive problems. The kitchen clatter and weekly hairstyling made Wednesday Mass in the small dining room very difficult. Everybody screamed. A homily was out of the question. We couldn’t bear it. I remember vividly a woman named Mary, 92 years old. She wore a blousy Hawaiian sack dress, lugging her glossy black handbag on her right arm. Mary spoke with a heavy accent, and for the longest time I thought she was Spanish. She wasn't. She was Hungarian. Everyone called her the Duchess of Spring Branch.

I loved to fish on my dad’s ranch in the San Luis Valley a few miles south of Del Norte, Colorado. Working a fast-flowing snow-fed Colorado stream was my joy. The ranch meant chores, cattle and hay work, lots of it, and a teenage boy like me ached to slip away in the afternoons to stalk Frisco Creek’s banks. Sweet mountain meadows perfumed by alfalfa and timothy hay and clover. Crisp mountain air. Crystal clear, cold mountain water. Fresh-caught slippery rainbow trout.

On Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020, Father Barker published this reverent and inspiring reflection. Following are some of the highlights. The April 12, 2020 Spirit and Truth newsletter that features the complete article is now posted on our website for your convenience. The Spirit and Truth Staff...

Most zebra births take place during rainy months when food is plentiful and herds pause their migrations. Zebra females about to birth depart the herd to locate a sheltered place in taller, thicker vegetation. The many harems of a migratory zebra herd typically graze a short distance away. When curious adults, including the harem stallion, approach a mother and her newborn foal, she becomes alarmed. The mare quickly blocks her baby from viewing the visitor's stripes. This task can be exhausting...