As I sat down to write this week, I was filled with heaviness. The past several weeks have been filled with loss and sadness for friends and, I’ll admit, I find myself rather empty of much to offer the ACNM community. Stumbling for inspiration, I happened upon the realization that today (Sept. 5) is the… [Read More]
About Chris Williston
Conversations I Don’t Have
When people find out that you have four kids, they often say strange things to you. Sometimes they try to “justify” why they have fewer children, which always seems to reveal some regret or disappointment in their past. Other times, they make you feel like you’re crazy. In an effort to keep things happy and… [Read More]
The Perfect Time for Parenting
I’ll never forget when my wife, Michelle, told me we were pregnant the first time. I unwrapped a gift to find tiny baby booties inside with a note that said, “Can’t wait to meet you, Daddy.” As I recall, I just started laughing. And then I kept on laughing. And then laughed some more. For… [Read More]
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Review
I have a thing for pilgrimage stories. It shouldn’t really come as a surprise, I suppose, since my personal (and currently neglected) blog is entitled This Pilgrim’s Progress. Knowing that alone, however,might not tip you off to how much I thoroughly rave about the film The Way, or the fact that I’ve listened to the… [Read More]
What Did the Pope Just Say?
Hold your horses, Huffington Post.The Pope did not just change the doctrine of the Catholic church. Protestants… take a deep breath before you point fingers and claim that Catholics believe you have to work your way into heaven and that Pope Francis just said so. Are we calmed down? Good. Let’s take a look at… [Read More]
The Best Me
Last week marked the premature end of an all-too-short era in the Williston house when, after a remarkable temper tantrum by my son, Lincoln, we decided to sell the Wii and Xbox on Craigslist. It all started, as most family crises do, with a father/son matchup in Mario Super Sluggers, a Mario Brothers-themed Baseball game… [Read More]
Superman and Catholic Spirituality
This Friday, millions of Americans will flock to theaters to see Iron Man 3, the latest expansion of the Marvel universe series of films. Early reviews are good and I’ll likely go see it, even after the failure that was Iron Man 2. But, honestly, you can have Tony Stark. My focus is on the… [Read More]
No, no, no
All week long I’ve been trying to write about Boston, attempting to write some words of sense that are born out of a senseless situation. When sidewalks are awash with blood, an eight year old boy, among others, is dead, and limbs are lying on the ground, there is no sense. All I have are… [Read More]
The Audacity of Pope Francis
On Good Friday morning last week, I received this text message from a friend, “Your new Pope is all kinds of awesome.” You can probably derive from the message that my friend is not Catholic. He read in the news about Pope Francis’s Holy Thursday visit to wash the feet of prison inmates and, like… [Read More]
Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience – A Review
There are no bounds to Justin Timberlake’s celebrity. Musician, movie star, and all around charismatic figure, JT (as I’ll affectionately call him) had fans running around Austin last week at SXSW with the mere suggestion that he MIGHT make a surprise appearance. While his star has certainly risen over the last several years, it has… [Read More]
The Sound of Jesus Coming
I’ve often wished that I could peek into the first century world to experience the sights and sounds of following Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, I love the gospels but I wish that one of the writers had composed their narrative with all of the descriptions of a novel. As it stands we get more… [Read More]
Catholic Time Travel 101
The call came in at 1:20p.m. on a Tuesday. My professional association had run a nice “member spotlight” on me in its magazine. It wasn’t much, just a few pictures of me and my family and a nice questionnaire about my career and personal interests. So, when a colleague called and mentioned it, I figured… [Read More]
Lance Armstrong and the Art of Confession
When is a confession not “good enough?” The question itself challenges my Catholic sensibilities. I like to think that all confession is valid for the expiation of sin. However, after watching Lance Armstrong in the public confessional of Oprah Winfrey’s couch last week, I suddenly have my doubts. Please understand, I don’t believe that… [Read More]
Christmas Unchained
There was a time when I wouldn’t dare miss a new Quentin Tarantino film. I was in middle school when Pulp Fiction was released in theatres and, as a teenage boy, I was fascinated by Tarantino’s violent, vulgar and verbose underground universe. Soon after, I gorged myself on the complete Tarantino catalog, watching True Romance,… [Read More]
Fly Fishers of Men
Last week, I discovered a new obsession and, in the process, learned a thing or two about the new evangelization. While the nation celebrated the Fourth of July with hotdogs and hamburgers, my Dad and I headed into the New Mexico desert to the San Juan River for our first fly fishing trip. There is,… [Read More]
I am not Brandon Vogt
I know you can’t hear me sigh when I type these words, so you’ll just have to imagine it. I am not Brandon Vogt. A couple of months back, I made the fortunate mistake of following Brandon Vogt on Facebook. For those who don’t know who Brandon is, he’s what I’d call a celebrity. Not… [Read More]
Book Review: Wool
Summer is upon us and we’re all looking for the next great read. So, what’s on your reading list? For those looking for recommendations, I suggest you look no further than Wool. Wool, like The Hunger Games, takes place in a post-apocalyptic future, but that’s where the comparison between the two series ends. In this… [Read More]
The Silence of St. Joseph
I have a friend who does quite a bit of public speaking about marriage. Having heard him a number of times, I can usually anticipate his jokes long before he makes them. He pokes fun at the quirks that enter marital relationships and the way that our culture views marriages. “I might be the one… [Read More]
The Attack on Conscience
Last week, the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services announced the final version of a rule that would require all employers and insurers to provide sterilization and contraceptives, including some abortion inducing drugs in their health plans. Although it was earlier announced that certain religious organizations would be exempt from the rule, the… [Read More]
The Sky is Not Falling
I am a news junkie. It’s probably a diagnosable sickness. I get out of bed in the morning and immediately grab my phone off of the alarm clock cradle in which it rests. The glow of the screen guides my steps to the bathroom. I turn on the water for the shower and get my… [Read More]
#OccupyYourParish
Last weekend was an oddity in Austin, TX… an overcast and rainy blip in an extended season of drought. As I got my family moving for Sunday mass, an email came in on my phone stating that the power was out in the religious education building and, thus, there would be no Sunday school for… [Read More]
Grappling with Fertility Issues
For couples struggling to conceive, the ache of a missing child is one of life’s greatest hardships. Living month-to-month, unsure of the outcome at the end of each cycle, couples exist somewhere between the ups and downs of a painful rollercoaster. Friends have moved on to playgroups, family members are asking about grandkids and tremendous… [Read More]
3 Not-so-Secret Secrets about NFP
A few weeks ago, my wife and I attended an evening of marital enrichment at the church. We sat down next to a couple and commenced with the regular chit chat, quickly finding out that like us, the couple had recently had their third child.“Are you planning on having more?” they asked us.“Well,” we said,… [Read More]
What We Look For
There are many joys to working with new media, but perhaps none more so than all of the “Stats” and other metrics provided by even the most basic of new media platforms. I love the fact that everything is trackable because it not only gives me an idea of how people are responding to my… [Read More]
Summer Movie Preview 2011
I used to be a movie buff. As a kid and young adult, I would watch almost anything. I knew my fascination with film had probably become an obsession when, after one particularly active movie-viewing summer, I received a letter from the president of Blockbuster Video, thanking me for renting more movies than 99% of… [Read More]
Throwing Stones at “The Church”
About two months ago, I wrote a post on my personal blog entitled, “Why is the Catholic Mass So Boring?” Now, let me offer this disclaimer: I do not find the Mass boring. The Mass is the intermingling of heaven and earth, where the body of Christ (both the heavenly and earthly Church) meet the… [Read More]
Pressing on the Lenten Journey
When this post goes live, there will be just twenty days remaining before Easter Sunday. I can’t help but wonder where the time has gone. It seems like just a few days ago when we entered into prayer and fasting on Ash Wednesday. The whole season of Lent, with its promises of sacrifice and devotion,… [Read More]
New Media for the New Evangelization
Why do we need New Media? What do blogs, podcasts, web sites, viral videos and other virtual expressions of faith have to add to the mission of the Church? After all, we went almost 2,000 years without access to these means of communication and the Church has done pretty well for herself, hasn’t she? There is… [Read More]
