One of my fondest memories of the 1970s was being a skateboarder, and there was no better place to skateboard than St. John's College and Seminary in Camarillo, California. Built in the midst of acres of orange groves, there was a monster hill that connected the college with the theology school below. This was during skateboarding's second wave, when the Dogtown Z-Boys were tearing up Santa Monica something fierce.

If you haven't read it yet, please see my Spirit Spot column about Mother Teresa and the recent revelations about her inner struggles, as revealed in TIME magazine last week. Already I have received some insightful feedback.

If you're involved in Catholic liturgy, you have probably heard that the official text for the Mass will soon be changing. This has been in the works for a number of years . . .

Since when did celebrity, fame and fortune become the New Gods? I propose a moratorium on celebrity obsession. Stop watching TV shows like "Showbiz Tonight" and "Hollywood Insider!" Cancel your subscription to People and US. Ignore anything on the Internet that even smells like a celebrity!

Instead of obsessing on a celebrity, I would rather . . .

Grant us peace, grant us peace.
Only love can make us free.
Grant us peace. . .

We had a marvelous time in Spokane. Wished you were there! By "we" I mean Holy Trinity Youth Choir and me, at the Catholic Youth Celebration for the Diocese of Spokane on the weekend of March 23-25. When I was asked to be a keynote speaker for the event, the idea of bringing my parish youth choir was suggested. That would be no easy feat since our party would include around 17 people traveling from Portland all the way to the eastern border of Oregon and Washington . . .

To understand the image of the Empty Tomb we need to go back to the first gospel: the gospel according to Mark. Did you know this gospel has no resurrection story?

Something went wrong.
They flocked to him for healing and wisdom.
He fed them with bread and fish,
four thousand at a time!
He kept them spellbound
with stories and parables.

Where are they now?

Bread and wine.
What could be more basic?
Of all the signs and symbols
Jesus might have used
as a remembrance of his death,
he chose bread and wine.

Liturgy in a cathedral is always formal, always solemn, always impressive. A cathedral funeral elevates that sum exponentially, especially at the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. Despite the built-in expectations of formality, the funeral liturgy of Father Lawrence Signey was warm, engaging, and deeply moving.