Any journey towards the Church is primarily a journey towards God. This journey towards God is found through Jesus Christ.
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Strange Fruit: COVID-19 May Help Parents Reclaim an Important Role
Mar 31, 2020 | 02:00 amMany commands are being issued today in response to COVID-19, and all for the good. But if you don’t mind, I’d like to call your attention to a perennial command to ponder as you’re at home realizing your parental duties:[…]
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For a Good Quarantine Read, There Ain’t Nothing Like a Classic
Mar 30, 2020 | 02:00 amNot infrequently, in the middle of a harried day in clinic or after an onerous day slinging emails on the computer, I find myself—in my mind’s eye—nestled in a dimly lit room, swallowed in an oversized chair, reading a classic[…]
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The Dangers of Digital Anonymity
Mar 27, 2020 | 01:00 amWhen I was in college in the mid-2000s—right around the time “Thefacebook” and Myspace launched and cell phones were suddenly everywhere—I became fascinated by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s writings on the press, which seemed to anticipate the dangers of[…]
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Catholic Prayer and Adoration—Through Space and Outside of Time
Mar 26, 2020 | 01:00 amIt is beautiful and silent—so silent that you might not believe the feed is live if not for the occasional flicker of a flame caused by one Benedictine nun of Tyburn convent moving in and bowing as she takes her[…]
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The Theology and Christ-Consolation of Spiritual Communion
Mar 25, 2020 | 01:00 amThe Church has weathered numerous storms throughout her history. Wars, plagues, famines, persecution—all of these are impressed upon the memory of Mother Church, forming her age-old wisdom and inspiring her pastoral concern. One of the ingenious notions developed as a[…]
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Let Him Go
Mar 25, 2020 | 01:00 amThe great Lenten readings for Cycle A move in a kind of crescendo from thirst, to blindness, to death—all metaphors for spiritual dysfunction. This Sunday’s Gospel deals with death through the story of Lazarus who, after four days in his tomb, represents[…]
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A Man After God’s Own Heart
Mar 18, 2020 | 01:00 amOur first reading for this weekend gives us a glimpse of one of the most powerful texts in the Bible—indeed, one of the truly great literary works that has come down to us from the ancient world. I’m talking about[…]
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By the Waters of Meribah
Mar 11, 2020 | 01:00 amOur first reading for today is the famous quarreling of Israel by the waters of Meribah in the book of Exodus. We find the chosen people in the midst of the desert—which is to say, in the process of conversion,[…]
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Bl. Jane of Toulouse
Mar 31, 2020 | 07:00 amBlessed Jane lived in the French town of Toulouse during the 13th century. A Carmelite monastery was founded in the same town in 1240 which exposed Jane to the Carmelite lifestyle and spirituality. In 1265 when St. Simon Stock, a 13th century reformer of the Carmelites, was passing through Toulouse, Jane met him and requested to be affiliated with the Carmelites. Simon agreed and Jane became the first Third Order Carmelite.Jane vowed herself to perpetual chastity and applied herself completely to the Carmelite Rule. In addition to many daily holy practices and penances, she reached out to the community and worked to help the sick and poor. One of Jane's primary missions was encouraging the boys of the town to help her serve the poor and help them discern whether or not they were called to be Carmelites. Blessed Jane is considered to be a founder of the Carmelite tertiary order and is considered to be its first member. She died in 1286.