Fr Tom Gardner

The past week and a half I was blessed to be the chaplain on a men’s retreat called Wilderness Outreach in the mountains of northern California. It was a great week of prayer, good brotherly discussions about faith, and daily Mass at an altar we created out in the woods. Our last night in the […]

Once there was a father who had a young son. The son got really into LEGOs, much to the delight of his father, who was also a LEGO lover. One day his son came to him beaming with pride, showing him a car that he had made. There was one small problem: the wheels were

Between 1940 and 1949, Pope St. Pius XII authorized crews to undertake excavations underneath St. Peter’s basilica. Renovation work on the lower level of the basilica had uncovered the remains of an ancient Roman necropolis on which the original basilica was made during the time of Constantine. Tradition held that this was the site where

I’m guessing that most of you have heard of the Iditarod, the annual sled race in Alaska where teams of sled dogs compete to cover the almost 1,000 miles between Anchorage and Nome. It has been run yearly since 1973. Let me tell you the story of the event that inspired the race. It was

I’m a big fan of the original Star Wars trilogy. I grew up watching the first movie on a VHS tape. This was from back in the day where movies would occasionally air on network TV. So when Star Wars came on TV, my mom and dad popped in the tape and hit record. I

Let me tell you a story about Bob and Tony. They were brothers who decided to order a kit car and build it together. They both were car enthusiasts and thought it would be a great way to bond with each other. So they put in the order and waited. Initially, the company they ordered

Over the last several weeks of school I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to our 6th and 7th graders. If you haven’t read that book, you are missing out, big time. Pick up a copy today and read it!  C.S. Lewis is one of the finest Christian fiction writers of the 20th

When I was a Boy Scout, I came to understand firemaking pretty well. In fact, for a brief time at Camp Falling Rock one summer, I worked at the station where the campers were challenged to build a fire with just a single match or even just a flint and steel. Fire is something that

One of my favorite movie musicals is “The Sound of Music.” It is the perfect combination of a great story, great characters and great music. Ever since I first saw it as a kid, I couldn’t help but get wrapped up in the story of the Von Trapp children as they came to know and

When I was a child, my friends and I always loved the playground at Montrose Elementary, where we all went to school. We would climb trees, swing on the swings, play tag, do the monkey bars, slide down the slides. It was a great place to have fun. But one day that place didn’t seem