It’s advent: don’t waste these precious days! Quietly competing with the banal and boring commercialism of Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays extended sales is another invitation. But it cannot be heard outside in the streets or while listening to CNN. Instead we must silent all the shouts of the marketplace to listen to another voice…more …
Happy Thanksgiving: A Republic if you can keep it. Something happened 402 years ago-some type of meal took place between the English settlers and the Massasoit and others of the Wampanoag settlement of native Americans. The details of that shared meal in what would become Plymouth Massachusetts are fodder for contention by pundits. That fact has …
Happy Thanksgiving: A Republic If You Can Keep It. Read More »
Joseph Ratzinger and the Divine Project “And in this He [Christ] showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, “What may this …
Thinking about holiness: its simplicity Wednesday was All Saints Day and Thursday, All Souls Day. Each November 1st and 2nd, we celebrate our friends in Heaven and pray for those who wait in Purgatory as we begin this month of the dead. Depressing? Morbid? Yeah, both if we ignore the reality–our bodies will die. But …
Tiny acts of heroism It didn’t take me very long to understand as a brand new Christian the tiny acts of heroism we Christians are required to commit each day-each minute. If we’re serious, that is. They are, in their own way, much tougher than one glorious and final act of martyrdom and complete abandonment. …
The universal search for meaning: belonging We’re created to belong—to someone, something. Whether it’s a person or a cause, belonging drives the universal search for meaning. Those Hamas terrorists? The Israeli fighters? The Ukrainian people and Russians? The Mexican cartels? The gangs in LA, New York, Chicago? In a sense, they’re all soldiers. Each is …
Vengeance: is it ever justifiable? When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled,he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,and he sent messengers ahead of him.On the way they entered a Samaritan villageto prepare for his reception there,but they would not welcome himbecause the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.When the disciples James …
Photo from Captured and Exposed Louis Pranzini and the Laborers Today, October 1st, is the feast day of The Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux, one of only thirty-six saints to be declared a Doctor of the Church. In his twenty-six year pontificate, Pope John Paul ll canonized around 482 saints–only one of whom he …
Louis Pranzini and the Laborers: Lesson from St. Therese Read More »
The Book of Samuel as Mirror of Us: Today You’ve guessed this photograph isn’t of the prophet Samuel. It’s an image of a man named Dr. Micah Goodman. Native Israeli philosopher and writer Goodman has the ear of Israeli leaders, and since discovering him, mine. Once I listened to Dr. Goodman’s first of five online lectures on Samuel, …
I know nothing about love I’d been Catholic for just a few months when the young priest approached me in the empty church. Everyone had left after the morning Mass but I stayed on my knees staring at the crucifix. The priest who would become my first spiritual director asked, “Are you okay?” With tears …