St. Anthony Messenger June | July 2020

Whenever I’m around my nieces, Rory, 16, and Cameron, 13, their relentless TikToking, Snapchatting, and FaceTiming annoy me. I’m puzzled by the amount of time they devote to their online lives. Then something sobering happened to me recently.

It is 1963 in Detroit. Mattie Moss Clark (Aunjanue Ellis), mother of five daughters, gets an idea for a gospel song in the middle of the night.

Express outrage, offer prayers, do nothing; express outrage, offer prayers, do nothing; repeat! Sound familiar? This is our pattern after every mass shooting.

COVID-19 is still wreaking havoc on communities across the country. I have no way of knowing what will happen next week or next month.

On a chilly January morning in 1991, Jeremy Delle, 15, walked in late to a packed English class in Richardson, Texas, with a .357 Magnum in hand.

Just as uplifting news stories seem to get buried under the more salacious and exploitative items, the efforts to spread goodness and well-being via technology are often overshadowed by mind-numbing games and unhealthy use of social media.