Child, have none told you? God is in your soul. That line, that stunning, arresting line is from a poem by Jessica Powers. Remember the Hallmark cards of a couple of decades ago? That is how I remembered Jessica Powers until today. August 18, the anniversary of her death in 1988. When I learned that Powers […]
Child, have none told you? God is in your soul! Read More »
“Love: I know nothing about it.” My statement was in reply to a priest who had asked if anything was wrong. Mass had ended and there I sat, alone in the big, cold New England Catholic Church. Staring at the quintessence of agony: the crucified Christ. Instead of coming to console with words or presence,
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Right. Why look back to Marcus Aurelius and Stoicism? Huh? Why would we want to return to one of the last Roman Emperors and a Greek philosophy which personified rigorous self-denial, extreme fortitude and emotional indifference? One of the very first books I devoured as a college undergrad was Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. A college professor
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Sorry for the deception in the title but there is only one reason that Do You Solemnly Swear? audio book is late. We fell behind in the schedule. Way behind. But now that I have your attention, what do you think of the new ad which will begin running soon in Publisher’s Weekly? This will
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The Shack: valuable lessons about opinion I read The Shack several years ago. And did not watch the movie until just a few days ago. Reactions to the movie, like the book, vary widely. There were those who complained about a God portrayed by an overweight black woman and others that the script was far
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Medjugorje, A Perplexing Pilgrimage. In 2003, I traveled alone across the world to Medjugorje, a perplexing pilgrimage. But first some background. The apparitions of the Virgin Mary to six young visionaries beginning in 1981 ignited a storm of controversy and persecution. Thirty-six years later, questions remain unanswered to the satisfaction of skeptical Catholic and secular
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“When there is no food for three or four days, the children cry from the pain. So I make them mud cookies to fill up their stomachs.” The missionary priest, Monsignor Patrick Marron from Food for the Poor, quoted a woman living in a village of about two hundred people about 20 miles from Port
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Last December, the movie Silence opened to a conflicting maze of reviews. Some greatly praising the film and others exceedingly critical of the tale of the ‘apostate Jesuit priests’ of seventeenth century Japan. I watched it three days ago and am still pondering its meaning. The film is gripping and relentless. Both intensity and portent
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Conclave is the best of Robert Harris’ novels, high praise because Harris is an excellent writer of historical fiction. Each of his books reveals the writer’s journalistic background: Rich in detail and imagery, Harris’ extensive research for each story is evident. Conclave is all of that but much more. This story is riveting, sympathetic and
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For converts like me, the story of the prodigal son evokes a tsunami of emotion: gratitude, relief, sorrow and recognition are only a few. But upon reflecting on the well-known parable that Jesus tells the complaining Pharisees and scribes, I began to think about the older brother with an entirely different lens. Rather than my
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