Today on Kresta - June 21, 2011

Talking about the "things that matter most" on June 21

4:00 – Pressing into Thin Places: Encouraging the Heart toward God
Pressing into Thin Places is a collection of stories from Margaret Wills’ personal experiences, punctuated by her poetry and infused with biblical verses and rich truths. Wills offers insight for bringing biblical truth to life, wisdom to cultivate a listening heart, encouragement for the downhearted, reassuring words for the faltering, and comfort and rest for those in any stage of their journey.

4:40 – Great American Catholic Eulogies
Eulogies have a long and important history in remembering and commemorating the dead. As Thomas Lynch notes, eulogies are meant "to speak for the ages, to bring homage and appreciation, the final appraisal, the last word and first draft of all future biography." In Great American Catholic Eulogies, Carol DeChant has compiled fifty of the most memorable and instructive eulogies, In Memoriam printed tributes, and elegiac poetry of Catholics in America.

5:00 – More Cracks in the Golden Dome
In 2001, the University of Notre Dame hired George O'Leary as its football coach: a position regarded by some alums, boosters, and board members as only slightly less significant than that held by the university's president, and by others as of undoubtedly greater importance. Shortly after the hire, the Manchester Union Leader disclosed that O'Leary had engaged in some serious résumé padding, including claims for a master's degree he had not earned from a university that did not exist. O'Leary's tenure as head coach of the Fighting Irish ended three weeks after it began. It now seems that, over the ensuing decade, Notre Dame didn't learn much about due diligence, even as its leaders forgot a few more things about integrity and honesty. George Weigel is here to look at the University of Notre Dame’s ongoing confusion.

5:30 – A Saint for Boston?
An engineer who became one of the first three priests of Opus Dei could become Boston's first canonized saint. This month, the archdiocese opened the cause of Father Joseph Muzquiz, a Spaniard who brought Opus Dei to the U.S. in 1949. His biographer, John Coverdale, describes the heroic fidelity, humility, and charity that made this quiet priest an especially apt model for our times.