Frank Silecchia was a New York native and an excavation laborer — a pick-and-shovel guy.
When his city begged for search-and-rescue volunteers after the 9/11 attack, he stepped up.
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By Mark Saucier
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3/28/24
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As a kid, I knew that St. Blaise was the patron saint of throat ailments because his blessing was on my birthday, and I narrowly escaped the horror of being named Blaise.
After that, I never …
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By Mark Saucier
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5/11/22
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In King Lear , it’s the fool Edgar who has the last word:
“The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.”
Behind the …
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By Mark Saucier
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7/6/23
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I was making a pinhole projector so our granddaughter could experience her first solar eclipse like her grandparents did back when both the sun and the moon were much younger.
While racing …
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By Mark Saucier
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4/11/24
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“... Do unto others as you would have them do to you ...”
Familiar, but these words in Matthew were not the source of the Golden Rule. It can be traced more than 4,000 years, …
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By Mark Saucier
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5/26/22
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When I was a kid, Lent was the time for talk about sin.
Perhaps it was in their teaching contract, but the good nuns invariably told us, in their own veiled words, about the seven …
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By Mark Saucier
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3/2/23
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We looked like an intergenerational field trip as we gathered at the trailhead.
Twenty of us, from a backpacked toddler to a couple of older dawdlers, were intent on tackling a hike that started …
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By Mark Saucier
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7/20/23
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There’s a story of the Irish writer Samuel Becket on a walk with a friend in Paris on a beautiful spring morning.
“Doesn’t this just make you feel happy to be alive?” his …
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By Mark Saucier
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11/24/23
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I went for a walk the other day along a portion of the green belt near our house.
It’s a peaceful path, meandering past a football field, a children’s park, tennis courts and open …
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By Mark Saucier
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4/24/24
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The day began with heavy clouds lingering after the night’s rain.
I had a text from a friend whose husband has just begun hospice. She would let us know when they completed their visit, and …
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By Mark Saucier
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11/10/22
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“Our thoughts and prayers are with you.”
It’s a genuine response by some unable to say anything else in the face of another’s pain.
It may be cliché, but it is …
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By Mark Saucier
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6/8/22
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Recent congressional testimony of UFOs and alleged “non-human biologics” intrigued me.
I recalled a story which now may not be apocryphal after all.
Not that long ago, our …
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By Mark Saucier
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8/3/23
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Advent. From the Latin adventus, meaning coming or arrival.
What is coming? Christmas. Incarnation. Emmanuel, the dwelling of God with us.
What is coming? The Parousia, the …
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By Mark Saucier
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12/7/23
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Once a month, I meet a friend for breakfast. We’ve only known each other a few years, but there was an immediate bond that has deepened with time.
We talk about news, sports, families, but …
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By Mark Saucier
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3/16/23
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Holy Week begins with an ironic scene.
An itinerant preacher from the countryside is placed on a donkey, lauded with palm branches and hosana-ed by the crowd as their conquering king.
The …
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By Mark Saucier
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3/29/23
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Thanksgiving is a busy day.
Hours in the kitchen preparing those favorite foods. Travel to make it home for that big meal, or multiple meals for many.
There’s setting tables, doing …
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By Mark Saucier
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11/23/22
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I was in a vain denial.
Then I realized that most of our dinner conversations consisted of me saying, “What?”
And then my pretense backfired when deafly nodding with a big grin to a …
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By Mark Saucier
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6/23/22
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No Christmas pageant would be complete without a young girl in white dress and veil playing the role of Mary.
Remember, though, that, unlike the men of the gospels, Mary was not allowed to take …
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By Mark Saucier
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12/14/23
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The Germans have a word for it. From the people who gave us schadenfreude for that pleasure we get from another’s failure, and zeitgeist for the spirit of the times, we get …
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By Mark Saucier
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8/16/23
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I don’t know if you noticed it, but another year has passed.
It saddens me in some ways.
I remember when it arrived, full of hope and promise. And then suddenly, it was gone, quietly …
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By Mark Saucier
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1/5/24
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