JOYCE CORONEL

A recent headline in The Wall Street Journal caught my attention: “Hard-wired for Giving.” The lead into the story questioned the Darwinian assumption that humans are basically selfish and pointed to a recent study in which scientists discovered the human brain is actually built for generosity.

Even now, four years after the day we lost him, I still hear the voice of my father resound within me day by day, guiding me through life’s twists and turns.

Even with many Americans still professing faith in God (sort of) we are clearly in a post-Christian era that finds its roots in the so-called sexual revolution and drug culture of the 1960s that embraced contraception, abortion and “free love.”

Today we remember Chaldean Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni, who, along with three subdeacons from Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul, Iraq, were killed June 3, 2007, while leaving the church after Mass.

Not the blood-spattered walls, not the unsterilized surgical instruments, not the corpses of tiny babies kept in cat food containers are of interest to reporters and their editors these days, unless of course they belong to the Catholic or pro-life press.

While it’s true that men and women have their fundamental differences, it’s also true that they are made by God so as to be complementary.

There comes a time in the life of every parent of a teenager or college student that you have The Discussion. High school and college-age kids — even the nicest of them — will at eventually come smack up against a parent’s prohibitions.

There’s a peace that comes over you when you’ve made your peace with God — a peace that the world cannot destroy.

In an era in which movies with overtly religious themes are generally dismissed as “cheesy,” Hollywood’s latest rendition of “Les Miserables” has garnered critical acclaim.

I admit it: I’ve always loved to read. There’s nothing I enjoy more than being curled up with a good book in the company of my husband and children who are similarly engaged.