Belated anniversary greetings to sister Mary and her husband Chris Gonzalez, who recently celebrated their wedding anniversary!!! May each day of the upcoming year be filled with the Lord's choicest blessings!!!
15 August 2026
From 'Catholic Lite' to Catholic Light
Former news anchor and broadcast journalist Tracy Davidson refers to her religious upbringing as "Catholic lite." But as she got older, she found herself becoming both a recipient and sharer of Catholic light, which came to illuminate her actions and perspective on life. We discussed her spiritual growth, her illustrious career, and her new mission to reach people in a more personal way on Christopher Closeup.
Tracy and her two siblings grew up with parents who had substance abuse and mental health issues. Still, she credits her mother with doing the best she could to plant the "seeds" of faith. "I received all the sacraments, and those seeds were deeply rooted," Tracy recalled.
Those seeds only started blossoming about 20 years ago when Tracy felt drawn to grow closer to God and to study her faith more deeply. At first, she joined some friends for a Christian Bible study, then tried to find a Catholic Bible study group that fit into her busy work schedule at NBC 10 in Philadelphia, but she was unsuccessful. "Then I just started studying the Bible at home on my kitchen table early in the morning," Tracy said. That led to a desire to pursue a degree in the area of religion, so she earned a Religious Studies certificate at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and got her master's in Holistic Spirituality at Chestnut Hill College.
After earning that final degree, someone asked Tracy why she pursued it. She answered, "Because I wanted to talk to people about God's love, but I didn't think that people would listen to the girl on TV, admittedly, Catholic lite, [who didn't] know much about all the rules."
This person inquired again, "Okay, but why?" This time, Tracy responded, "Because there is no other explanation but God's love that my brother, my sister, and I are all living productive, happy, healthy lives. I credit the Lord."
"I always did believe that the future could be better," Tracy added, referencing her troubled home life in her youth. "I can think back . . . going to 5:00 Mass, and I was part of the guitar group where I sang. I always felt incredibly peaceful at Mass. There was something inside me, the message was always that it was going to get better. And I tell people that today. Whether I'm talking in spiritual terms or not, I say, 'You get to decide how you're going to view the future, and I'm going to always choose hope.'"
After 40 years working in news, Tracy recently stepped away from that job to focus on public speaking and mentoring young women. Faith remains a focus of her life and work, though. She even received the John Cardinal Foley Award for Excellence in Communications from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.
She said, "Even though I didn't go the pastoral counseling route, I feel like I had a lot of classes in that, and I feel well-prepared to journey with anyone up the mountain regardless of their spiritual tradition, whatever they're facing. [Also], I just delivered a commencement address, and I quoted one of my favorite songs. The lyrics are, 'God put a million doors in the world for His love to walk through. One of those doors is you.' I actually used that in a commencement address at Ursinus College, which is an incredibly diverse community. . . . I said, regardless of your spiritual tradition, that holds true. We're all called to love one another and to serve one another."
This essay is a recent "Light One Candle"
column by Tony Rossi, Director of Communications, The Christophers; it is one of a series of
weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current
events.
Background information:
The Christophers
Reflection Starter from Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, T.O.R.
"Some people are like sticky notes, they apply themselves but never seem to be able to stick with anything for very long.." - Father Brian Cavanaugh, T.O.R.
13 August 2026
"Sing of Mary (Pure and Lowly)"
As we continue to live this week, I offer this version of "Sing of Mary (Pure and Lowly)":
Fr. Jack Kolodziej, OSFS, on Dr. Seuss and Little Virtues
"his week my young niece and nephew will be performing in a youth version of the Broadway musical Seussical. The play is a mixture of many classic children’s stories by the famous Dr. Seuss. The show centers on community, loyalty, and the power of imagination. The words and the music teach the importance of staying loyal to friends and standing up for what is right, even when you feel abandoned or alone.
"The core message teaches kids that 'a person's a person, no matter how small.' . . ."
In a recent commentary, Father Jack Kolodziej, OSFS, reflected on how both Seussical and St. Francis remind us that we all matter.
To access Fr. Kolodziej's complete post, please visit:De Sales Weekly: Provincial Reflection: Nothing is Small in the Service of God (13 AUG 26)
Reflection Starter from St. Jane Frances de Chantal
"Follow your own way of speaking to our Lord sincerely, lovingly, confidently, and simply, as your heart dictates." - Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
08 August 2026
Four Tops: "Reach Out (I'll Be There)"
As this blessed week draws to a close, I offer this version of The Four Tops presenting"Reach Out (I'll Be There)":
Doing Small Things with Great Love
Sharon Eubank spent nearly 30 years doing humanitarian work around the world, but it all started with socks. Yes, socks. A seemingly inconsequential item changed her perspective about the ways that we can serve others, and she has now shared what she learned in the informative and motivational Christopher Award-winning book Doing Small Things with Great Love: How Everyday Humanitarians are Changing the World.
During a Christopher Closeup interview, Sharon recalled a moment in the 1990s when she found her mother knitting bright red socks. When she asked her why she was doing that, her mother responded that there was an airlift taking donations to Sarajevo to help the people suffering there during the Yugoslavian War. Sharon thought to herself, "Is that the best we can do? Have women in middle America knitting socks for all the things that those people needed?"“
"Then a couple of years later," Sharon continued, “I read a story in The New York Times about a woman who was in Sarajevo. Her building had been bombed. She was living in the basement, and the pipes had broken so everything was freezing, frozen ice. She said a Red Cross truck pulled up into the yard, and they distributed brand new wool socks. She said she put her filthy feet into those socks and pulled them up, and she felt so grateful for whoever had provided them. Of course, the bigger issues still remained: the war was still going, the bombs were still falling. But for that moment, that woman, that was what she needed. It made a difference. . . . I recognized that rather than just focusing on 'I can only do the big things; the small things don't matter,' it's the right thing that comes at the right time for the right reason that makes humanitarian aid valuable"
The simplicity of that idea guided Sharon's humanitarian work and, decades later, led her to write Doing Small Things with Great Love, the title of which is derived from Saint Mother Teresa's famous quote, "We can't all do great things, but we can all do small things with great love."
Sharon explained, "The emphasis isn't on the thing that you're doing. It's on the way that you do it. . . . .[Mother Teresa] worked with some of the hardest, lowest-caste people in India. As they were dying, she brought them into her place. She washed their feet. She removed the filth of the street. She tucked them into clean sheets. She held their hands while they were dying. And she looked in their eyes and said, 'You are worthy of this. God loves you. I'm an instrument of His love.' . . . Even though they were small things, ordinary things, that made all the difference. . . . So I wanted to highlight, you don't have to worry that what you're doing is small because if you do it with great compassion, it becomes something divine."
The dignity of the human person is a recurring theme throughout the book, and Sharon commends faith leaders like Pope Leo, "who talks a lot about the dignity of each person, the respectful treatment, the humane solutions that must be part of how we tackle difficult things. . . . In my experience over 30 years, people don't change unless they completely feel like you respect them and you love them. Once they feel that, your partnership explodes. And it isn't the thing that we're giving them - it's not the food; it's not the medical care. It's that respect that they crave in their difficult situations that we can give the most."
This essay is a recent "Light One Candle"
column by Tony Rossi, Director of Communications, The Christophers; it is one of a series of
weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current
events.
Background information:
The Christophers
Reflection Starter
"Sometimes a broken road leads to the best destination." - from The Christmas Parade movie
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