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Sometimes, we feel caught in a maelstrom. Modern life moves at a breathless pace and we despair at keeping up. Pope Francis dubbed this dizzying trajectory mpidification. Whether it's fierce [...]

As I do every year, I spent a long evening back in March watching the Oscars. Sure, it's a parade of glitzy fashions and often debatable award winners giving mostly [...]

I recently spent time in a cabin in the woods. For days I had to do things the 'old way'; rustic was a repeated word in the brochure about this [...]

Being Catholic used to mean going to church. That's what Catholics did before the Second Vatican Council, and we did it a lot. Then came Vatican II (1962-1965), with its [...]

Liars! Deceivers! Truth twisters! Alternative-fact-mongers! This may sound like a litany snatched from recent headlines. Actually, it's a basic theme in the New Testament letters of John. A closer look [...]

Decades ago, when I was an English major, I imagined myself a poet. This was in part because I won a national poetry contest in high school that guaranteed me [...]

I have a friend in Europe who can barely keep a job. She's brilliant, well-educated, charming, and loaded with experience in all aspects of her profession. The problem is her [...]

What are you looking for? Jesus asks this question of his disciples, those who propose to fall in line behind him. It's a question we might ask more than we [...]

The word 'O' dates back to the 13th century. But what does it actually mean? I typed the question into the search engine with sincere curiosity: What does the word [...]

Whenever the prophet Malachi pops up at Mass, I think of a dark comedy from 1992 called Death Becomes Her. The former is a bleak prophet with nothing good to [...]

Recently I stayed with a friend in her comfortable, airy country house. Dottie is a collector. Among a jumble of art objects depicting dogs, camels, and fish, her home is [...]

My friend Beryl is what's known as a super-ager. At 90, she's as spry and adventurous as many half her age. Scientists are actually studying her to figure out how [...]

Some folks like to stay put. Not all are as extreme about that as my dad, who lived and died in the same house in which he was born. But [...]

People lived longer back In the days before the great flood in Genesis, so the story goes--a lot longer. The implication is that, closer to the bestowal of the divine [...]

These days, I find myself mindlessly crossing to the other side of the street if I see someone proceeding down the sidewalk I'm on. It's a COVID-19 reflex I hope [...]

Recently I reviewed a newly published Bible study program. It was a creative effort: visually appealing pages, good quality paper, easy to use, with an inventive multimedia approach. In addition, [...]

'What is truth?' Pontius Pilate famously asked of Jesus. It's a fair question, especially in our present media environment where facts have become increasingly malleable. As the provincial governor interrogating [...]

If you attended parochial school some decades ago, you probably had a few Marys in your class. They would include, of course, Marias, Marians, Mary Annes, Mary Alices, and Mary [...]

Lent is about losing your luggage. Or maybe it seems that way because recently I lost mine. But that's not the start of the story, so let me rewind a [...]

I don't go to museums much. Not because I don't like them, but simply because--you know. Maybe for the same reason you don't go. Museums take time, and life is [...]

It's a shiny, brand-new year. So let's talk about heaven! With one caveat: I'm not going to strip-mine a lot of theology here. My brain is too small to appreciate [...]

What's your main role during the holiday season? Are you the host or the guest? Either way, hospitality takes center stage for many of us in the final weeks of [...]

Where would we be these days without Zoom? Or video telephony, to be precise: the ability to gather virtually with people in various locations and to see and hear each [...]

Along time ago in a Midwestern state far, far away, I gave a talk in a parish gymnasium. A crowd of patient parents, squirming children, and older folks with nothing [...]

My friend in Buffalo wrote me on the day an 18-year-old murdered 10 people at a small supermarket there. She was heartsick and shaken at the violence but also appalled [...]

For too long you and I have said, 'I'm a Catholic,' as if to identify a club membership. Worse, we may have implied that we belong to the right church, [...]

We live in the land of the free. And thank God for it. Yet as we celebrate our nation's independence once more with generous pyrotechnics and prodigious flag waving, we [...]

I wish I had a universal translator. You know, like the one they use so pervasively on Star Trek. Surely you've seen how it works: No matter what planet the [...]

Most of us wear several hats in our many relationships. We may be children and parents and spouses simultaneously. We're coworkers, neighbors, friends, and citizens, exercising these distinct roles all [...]

Old is good. If you've ever had a tattered shirt you can't throw out because of all the good times and happy memories rubbed into it, you're a fan of [...]

Family life isn't perfect. Still, most of us would prefer life with our families than without them. By family, I mean the original context of persons to whom you especially [...]

Christ died for our sins, he was buried, he was raised--and he's been seen since. The game of 'If' is popular among children, and not a few adults indulge in [...]

There's no place like home, Dorothy repeats like a mantra. She clicks the heels of her magic shoes until she opens her eyes to find herself in the land of [...]

December feels like the soft landing every year could use. While January is often propelled by a crazed monster of executive function--New Year's resolutions, goals and budgets, new semesters and [...]

This column missed its deadline. This doesn't affect the experience you're having in any way, since it went to press on time as usual. But permit me to brag: In [...]

A lot can be said in celebration of the binary. It's an ancient system of organization, dividing reality into complementary or contradictory halves. Think true/false tests and yes/no answers. Arranging [...]

Eighty years ago C. S. Lewis wrote The Problem of Pain. The title makes me laugh. Does anyone need to be convinced that pain is a problem? What Lewis was [...]

You can poke fun at a lot of things in religion and all but the most severe practitioners will enjoy the laugh. But church leaders often advise, whatever you do, [...]

Some things don't really matter. Others are essential to growth and happiness. The key to life may be in how well we're able to discern which elements belong in which [...]

What I miss most about going to church is the choir. During this long year of pandemic, when I only entered our parish building twice, that's the piece of liturgy [...]

Thomas Jefferson promoted a rather surprising idea: the need for a healthy society to make generous room for ongoing dissatisfaction. A nation's Founding Father might be expected to champion docile [...]

As a story loses its history, it gains its meaning. This is never truer than in stories shared among families about their common memories. Over the years, the tales of [...]

It's Lent again. The anniversary of pandemic. It was this time last year that Petey came into my life unbidden. She left the same way. Coming and going, this budgie [...]

The article discusses the power of words and their ability to create reality. It highlights the importance of using words responsibly and with intention, as they have the potential to shape our thoughts, actions, and relationships. The author draws on religious and theological perspectives to emphasize the transformative power of words, contrasting it with the empty rhetoric often found in politics, media, and other spheres. The article encourages readers to approach language as a sacrament of intention, using words to bring about positive change and promote peace, compassion, and healing. [Extracted from the article]

The heart is the boss of us. This is certainly true when we fall in love. It's equally obvious when we're consumed by rage or sorrow. Joy puts a dance [...]

In late 2002 one of my publishers called me on the phone in a panic: 'The pope is killing me!' he moaned. Publishers rarely phone. This was serious. The pontiff [...]

This whole blighted year I've waited for Isaiah with the agonized impatience children suffer for the arrival of Santa. Not that Isaiah is as rare a visitor as the gent [...]

Last fall in the month of All Saints, I rode the Amtrak from Providence, Rhode Island to Baltimore, Maryland. I was heading to a celebration of the life of Mother [...]

Truth is truth, no matter who says it. This is an idea I've heard and agreed with, repeated and utilized many times. Yet for some who find this message basically [...]

So here's the story of my friend, Wes, from Kentucky. We've never met, but I've known Wes for years. He reads the reflections I write in this or that magazine, [...]