My book, Rhythms of Habit: Cultivating Virtue Through Christian Time, is now available for pre-order! It is about virtues as moral muscles, habits as exercises for those muscles, and the church year as an annual prescription of habits to strengthen all the right virtues.
From a “history of ideas” perspective, the number of people who have stood within this frame and spoke words that have changed the way humans view the world is astounding.
The Agora, Areopagus, and Acropolis.
Standing at the site of one of the most beautifully contextualized sermons of the New Testament.
Just got word that the subtitle for Rhythms of Habit is being changed to Cultivating Virtue Through Christian Time. Grateful to have a sharp editor who helped improve the flow of the book and made this excellent suggestion. Pre-order in the weeks to come; more info about the book here.
Waking up at 4am in Greece to watch the USMNT after getting settled in our hotel at 1am has paid off. Watching alone, but with a beautiful sunrise approaching.
“I’ve been sent here for your Negroni” is all I had to say. Does not disappoint!
Worshiped in Italian at Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista. Being in a Roman Catholic parish speaking a different tongue did not stop us from recognizing the liturgy and (almost) following along.
Proud of our family for completing the Sentiero Azzuro between Monterosso al Mare and Vernazza. Our kids were by far the youngest hikers out this morning, and powered through some pretty steep inclines.
We started our trip praying in the ruins of a 14th century church, and we ended with Evening Prayer and holy unction in the Little Chapel at the hermitage of St. Francis of Assisi. Beautiful bookends for a wonderful school trip.
An ordered list of World Cup teams I am pulling for this summer, to be updated as teams are eliminated.
The US of A plus two motherlands, along with nations in which people we love live or for whom players we admire play.
🇺🇸 🏴 🇩🇪 🇸🇳 🇭🇷 🇰🇷
They don’t make instruction manuals like they used to.
Evening Prayer to kick off our Rhetoric School visit to Rome in the ruins of the youngest church we will visit throughout the trip.
San Nicola a Capo di Bove, dedicated in AD 1303.
✅ Submit final manuscript for Rhythms of Habit.
This looks to be the final version of the beautiful cover my wife designed for Rhythms of Habit!
Very glad for Petar Musa as he earned a spot on Croatia’s World Cup roster. He has been on fire for FC Dallas this season, and I’m excited to see him play this summer. As you can tell, we are basically best friends because Zoë and I saw him walking through the stadium last season.
Seniors, I have to be honest with you. I wrote you each a letter that you received on Thursday morning. I then shared another letter with you all at dinner on Thursday night. And now I am standing here to share one final word with you before you walk across this stage. I’m running out of things to say! But I have the microphone, and I love you, so I’d like to offer two final thoughts.
Are the Beatitudes merely beautiful words — or do they actually mean something in a broken world? The Beatitudes are not simply moral advice or self-help teaching, but Jesus’ announcement that a new world is breaking in. Spoken into a first-century world shaped by violence, power, and fear, the Beatitudes declare that those who live by God’s kingdom values now are already blessed.
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week—but this week is more than what it appears to be. It is easy to move through these days as just another stretch of time filled with responsibilities, schedules, and routines. But Holy Week invites us to see more deeply—to recognize that beneath the surface, something eternal is unfolding. The story of Jesus breaks through the “enchantments” we live under: the belief that we are in control, that we are self-sufficient, or that our deepest needs can be solved by the world around us.
Many of us feel the tension—wanting to follow God fully, while still holding on to the life we want for ourselves. Can we live our way now and God’s way later? The invitation of the Gospel is not a loss of joy, but the discovery of it—both now and forever. To entrust our lives to God is to find the meaning, freedom, and joy we were made for.
I have found adding more apps to help limit my smartphone to be a mixed bag, but so far I find the Anti Browser to be a truly helpful one. Disable Safari, set Anti Browser as your default browser, and retain the ability to tap direct links and open QR codes when absolutely necessary. (I still remain committed to asking for a paper menu when QR is the only option, if only to see the confused faces that ensue.)
I appreciate the option to disable Search/AI, leaving QR Codes and Wikipedia as the only two browsing options.
I think this will allow me to keep my “no browser” practice even when traveling on a school and family trip this summer.
This is the face of a man who can’t believe how relieved he feels as the one at the helm when a miracle occurred. The best Champion’s League semi-final match ever never gets old.
