“That makes me feel uncomfortable” is the show-stopping phrase of the postmodern era. To utter these words brings immediate shame to the actor and creates an impenetrable bubble over the accuser. Who needs the in-breaking of grace or salvation, a word that literally means safety, when we can control the circumstances of our lives to … Continue reading October 18, 2025 →
Autumn can be a mysterious time of year. The crisp air, the vibrant colors, and the long evenings are somehow able to announce change in a way that is attractive and compelling to us human beings. While the kind of change that takes place during autumn is gradual and intentional, the beauty of the season … Continue reading October 11, 2025 →
While Francis of Assisi may be best known as the pious-faced saint who adorns the lawns of Catholics and animal lovers the world over, he was a real person who lived an authentic life. Francis grew up the son of a wealthy merchant. He led a carefree and indulgent lifestyle and eventually joined the local … Continue reading October 4, 2025 →
Thérèse of Lisieux entered the convent at the tender age of fifteen and died at the tender age of twenty-four. If it hadn’t been for her biological sister, Pauline, who was her mother superior and assigned Thérèse, under the vow of obedience, the task of writing out her spiritual story, her legacy would be relegated … Continue reading September 27, 2025 →
It was my junior year of high school, and I was enjoying my newfound freedom as a licensed driver, sitting by myself, in the family station wagon, waiting for the light to change down the street from the schoolhouse. The buses and cars stacked up, and a man suddenly emerged in the middle of the … Continue reading September 20, 2025 →
There’s nothing quite like a good hiking trail. The way opens up as the tree limbs and tall grass beckon me on. Especially at the breezy time of day, with the leaves dangling down and the dust kicking up, the path just seems to care for each person who takes a risk on exploration, exclaiming, … Continue reading September 13, 2025 →
Imagine a bride dressed in white, holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand and her groom’s arm in the other. He is one step ahead of her, leading her through the darkness, down the path of true love, and she is following him, one step at a time, with great trust. As the image … Continue reading September 6, 2025 →
It would have been so great to have grown up in the 1960s. Decades of repression had finally matured to the point of a cultural explosion: artists, musicians, politicians, intellectuals, and religious folks taking risks on new expressions of meaning and transcendence; cross-generational pollination; untapped springs of love and compassion bubbling up to the surface; … Continue reading August 30, 2025 →
My friend Helen was waiting for me after the meeting. She handed me a folded up piece of computer paper and explained how the poem she had just composed captured the essence of her current emotional state. The first line just popped, “Stubbing my toe on reality, IT HURTS!” After I had finished reading the … Continue reading August 23, 2025 →
Have you ever been to Amish country? It’s a marvelous place where buggies with bearded drivers and bonneted passengers coexist on paved roads with SUVs, V6s, and 4x4s. The Amish community does not reject the world (according to Jn 3:16, God so loved the world, he gave his only Son), but chooses instead to keep … Continue reading August 16, 2025 →
Greenhouses can be exotic places. Beautiful trees and plants from all around the world—even in the middle of winter!—teeming with blossoms, flowers and life. These “forcing houses,” as they are called across the ocean, are designed to pressure seeds and saplings into maturity. While conditions that are too hot, too sunny, too humid, or without … Continue reading August 9, 2025 →
“When I pray, I pray; and when I eat, I eat!” This is apparently how 16th century Carmelite mystic Teresa of Avila responded when some sisters found her in the convent kitchen devouring partridge one day. She was a woman who was keenly aware of but not ashamed of her human desires. After her interior … Continue reading August 2, 2025 →
We should save the deathbed conversion scenes for the movies. It is highly unlikely that, with tubes protruding from our nostrils, under the influence of a vast array of drugs, and surrounded by a team of medical professionals, we will have the wherewithal to finally and definitively commend our lives to the Lord. All of … Continue reading July 26, 2025 →
Sometimes it’s a good idea to take the slow road. To pay attention to the details. To consider the deeper meanings of things. To get out of the bubble. To try something new. To find our center. To remember the big picture. To relax. To enjoy the journey. To breathe deeply. To smile. To be … Continue reading July 19, 2025 →
Good for you! Good night! Good job! We use the word “good” in a variety of ways throughout a given day. Sometimes it’s just a throw-away word, “I’m doing pretty good,” while other times it’s purely utilitarian, “It’s not good for me!” The Christian tradition, nevertheless, invites us to a more critical reflection: the Good … Continue reading July 12, 2025 →
To many people these days, worship seems like an outdated concept. As religious beings, however, worship is inescapable. We human persons are constantly burdened with the awful weight of having to decide what is worth most to us, the root meaning of wor(th)-ship. If we go the postmodern route of claiming to worship nothing, we … Continue reading July 5, 2025 →
How dumb is our species? After millennia of evolution, we still take the bait? We still play the game? “Might makes right!” “Nobody gets the best of me!” “I’m gonna beat you up!” Even if one person makes the decision to declare war on another, it is our shared humanity that is acting and we … Continue reading June 28, 2025 →
If we are trying to overcome a bad habit, a vice or even an addiction, we should consider adding the word “preference” to our spiritual vocabulary. Because of our fallen human condition, we tragically, and unknowingly, function out of a fearful orientation that pits us against just about everything we come into contact with; thus, … Continue reading June 21, 2025 →
The “Onion Story,” embedded within one of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s monster novels, captures the essence of Christian salvation. An old crone dies and ends up in hell. Her guardian angel is weeping when he remembers that she had actually done one good deed in her life. He takes the very onion that she had given to … Continue reading June 14, 2025 →
When we tell another person, “I’ll pray for you,” we should really follow through on that promise. If we say those words, out of habit, or out of cultural pressure, or out of the anxiety of an intense emotional moment, but don’t really mean it, we should stop. To be spiritually facetious like that not … Continue reading June 7, 2025 →