Summer is a time for respite, for a leisurely peace where we get a chance to breathe. We go to pools, head out on vacation and enjoy the last quiet moments with our families before business resumes as normal. There is a
We often hear commentators bemoan the partisan polarization that seems to have infected the United States. If only we could treat each other with a degree of decorum, to dialogue as equals, then perhaps we could pursue the common good. This political
There’s a good deal of modern liturgical music that celebrates the arrival of God’s justice. In these hymns, we tend to call out for God’s justice to descend. We sing it happily, joyfully, with pep and vigor, unaware that when this justice
Flipping through television preaching on Sunday mornings in the United States, you get a sense that God functions as a kind of sugar daddy. If we say the right prayers and have faith in God, then we’ll receive a plurality of gifts
Our God will never forget our trials or times of faithfulness, because he is full of justice and mercy
Christ does not scold Martha for being hospitable, but for lacking contemplative hospitality
The greatest threat to the Gospel may be not secularization or a culture hostile to Christianity. Instead, it may be ourselves, our own tepid preaching of the word. As a Church, we regularly reduce the Gospel to a series of moral principles.
In his encyclical Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”), Pope Francis describes one of the temptations of Christians today. Rather than experience the joy of the Risen Christ, the gift of divine love that dwells among the human family, we may
From an early age, we come to recognize ourselves as free creatures. The 2-year-old seeks to tie her own shoes, to buckle her own seatbelt, to “do it myself!” This awakening of freedom is a perilous gift. After all, we have been
In a recent cover story in The Atlantic, journalist and former priest James Carroll announced that he refuses to participate in Mass. Because of the abuse scandal, he has determined that only a total boycott of the Eucharist makes sense. Until the