Spiritual Abortion
“Like as from polished and transparent glass, Or as from water clear and luminous, Whose shallows leaves the bottom shadowless, The image of a face comes back to us… So I saw faces , many and diverse, Eager to speak.”...
Category: Reflection
The Church, School of Attention
During his general audience on July 28th, Pope Francis discussed the life of St. Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first canonized saint. As Mother Mary of the Cross, MacKillop founded the Josephites, an order of religious sisters dedicated to the education and...
“We can’t go to church in pajama pants”
Like many families during summer months, mine was recently traveling to the beach. My husband and I took a family friend with us to help with our nine-year-old twins and seven-year-old. We packed way too many bags and left at...
For a more Sentimental Church
“They were men of genius, but they had no perception of what is just and lawful in music; raging like Bacchanals and possessed with inordinate delights-mingling lamentations with hymns, and paeans with dithyrambs; imitating the sounds of the flute on...
Understanding L’Arche Abuse, Imagining Path Forward
Trigger/Content warning: discussion of sexual and spiritual abuse, sexual content Because of the strength of its communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities live together, L’Arche has long enjoyed a first-rate international reputation. Thus, after the death of founder...
The Opposite of Alone
In our previous article in this series on Union and Communion, “One Hand Clapping,” we took a look at a phenomenon that is becoming more and more widespread in our American society: social and personal isolation. The breakup of the...
Eucharistic Revival, Divine Mercy, and Juneteenth
The National Eucharistic Revival launched June 19, 2022 on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, or Corpus Christi, began as a three-year initiative with a mission to “renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship...
Missionary zeal from a hospital bed
After yesterday’s 40-minute visit to a Roman hospital for a “check up,” Pope Francis participated this morning in his usual Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter’s square, where he spoke about St. Therese of the Child Jesus and afterwards greeted...
The Eschatological Foundations of Social Justice
Catholicism has always considered creation to be the place of God’s saving activity, but the Church’s eschatological vision has often focused on an otherworldly destiny that forgets the importance of this world. This otherworldly escapism still lingers in some Christian...
Pentecost and the Humility of the Church
Humility keeps one “within his own limits.[1]” In its religious sense, humility marks one’s complete dependence on God. Though not the chief Christian virtue, humility is paramount in discerning one’s place before God and the rest of the world. It...
To Harbor Guide Me by Thy Mercy
Mira il tuo popolo, bella Signora, che pien di giubilo oggi ti onora; anch’io festevole, corro ai tuoi piè. O Santa Vergine, prega per me. I spent about half of May traveling in the Central Mediterranean, the part of the...
One Hand Clapping
“What is the sound of one hand clapping?” This question is a well-known Buddhist koan. A koan is a question that is meant to jog the hearer’s mind out of logical thinking into enlightenment or simply into awareness. Personally, whenever...
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