C.J. 
Two men born twenty-one days apart in the summer of 1923. Two boys shaped by the Great Depression. Two grandfathers who taught me that a good life is built less by extraordinary moments than by showing up for the ordinary ones. There are certain coincidences in a family that do not seem particularly remarkable when … Read more
I suppose there are easier ways to decide to write a book. Some people begin with an idea, perhaps a subject they have studied for years. Others have always dreamed of seeing their name on the cover of something. That really is not how 7 Reflections From the Edge of Death happened. In fact, for … Read more
There are places that athat are written into your bones. For me, that place is Papillion, Nebraska. It is the place where I was born, and raised. The place where I learned what it meant to belong to a community. Even if I didn’t yet have the words to explain it. And, by the grace … Read more
“The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” — Psalm 16:6 There are places in this world that seem to possess a soul of their own. Not because the soil itself is holy, the trees whisper secrets, or ghosts linger in forgotten corners. Rather, because God often … Read more
Today we laid my great-uncle Eugene “Eug” Svagera to rest. With that simple act, an era quietly came to an end. The four Svagera brothers, Charlie, Joe, George (“Red”), and Eugene (“Eug”)are together once again. As I sat in the Church during Mass today, I could not help but think that perhaps no four brothers ever shared … Read more
On Jan Hus Day, the Czech Republic remembers a priest burned for heresy. But was Jan Hus truly a heretic, or did he simply uncover the wound too early?
This is the third and final reflection in my Independence Day trilogy. The first looked upward to Mount Rushmore and the ideals upon which America was built. The second remembered my Grandpa Svagera, born on July 4, 1923, and the generation that defended those ideals. This final reflection looks closer to home, to the neighborhoods, … Read more
For the first few years of my life, I did not know what the Fourth of July was really about. I did not know about the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the year 1776. The long and complicated story of America, with all its glory and all its wounds, all its promise and … Read more
This is the first of three reflections I hope to offer in honor of this three-day holiday weekend in the United States, and also in honor of the 250th birthday of the United States of America. On July 4, 2026, our country marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a milestone … Read more
There are some voices that do not merely sing songs, they enter the house, ride in the car, and sit beside you through the beginning and ending of relationships, through long drives, late nights, ordinary afternoons, and those strange hours when memory suddenly throws open a door you thought had been shut for years. For … Read more
