An Image of Communion
Some of my best memories have taken place around a table. Birthday parties, holiday meals, dinners with friends and family at home or at a restaurant. Food is an essential part of our physical lives but sharing meals is an...
Category: Reflection
Willing the Good: A survivor’s call for restorative justice
TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault and violence that may be triggering to survivors. The last three popes have called for the abolition of the death penalty. In 2018, Pope Francis revised the official teaching of the...
The Known Unknown
A reflection on the Sunday readings for February 26, 2021 — the Second Sunday in Lent There are things we know, there are things we don’t know, and then there is the unknown. The things we know help us to...
The Path of Interior Silence: A Haibun Lenten reflection
The later-afternoon sky fills with cirrus clouds again. The expected snow has not yet arrived, but my rheumatic joints inform me that it’s only a matter of time. That will mean yet another turn at the snow-thrower, gripping it tightly...
“Blessed Are They Who Mourn” in the Time of COVID-19
Over 502,000 people have now lost their lives to Covid-19 since the first case was reported in the United States. The numbers of those sickened and who have died are staggering. It’s easy to become numb to the reality they...
A new world after the pandemic: Let Us Dream
During the better part of the past year, we have found ourselves engulfed in a crisis situation that has affected all of humanity. The Covid-19 pandemic and all of its side effects have converged in a crisis that we did...
Tenderness as a Test-strip for Truth
Over the past year, I have heard a lot of people–most of whom are fellow Catholics–lamenting the difficulty of discerning the truth about current events. What really happened, and how can we know? Some people are genuinely confused about how...
‘Driven’ Into the Wilderness with Christ
A reflection on the Sunday readings for February 21, 2021 — the First Sunday in Lent Yesterday, I celebrated the funeral of the woman who gave me my favorite Lent story. She was a very pious woman and had a great...
Staying Online this Lent? 10 Tips from Pope Francis
Lent is a time that many Catholics choose to give up social media, but for those of us who stay active, Lent is a good time to rethink our online behavior. In the spirit of Pope Francis’s encyclical Fratelli Tutti,...
Choose Mercy this Lent
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus challenges us to go “and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” (9:13). Here Jesus quotes from Hosea Chapter 6, which begins with a call to return to the Lord who will...
Hypocrisy extinguishes the flames of God
Lent is a transition, a journey of return and repentance. But it is not the final destination. Traditionally, as the ashes are placed on our heads, we are told, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”...
Returning to the Lord with our whole heart
Dad had always wished to be buried in his ancestral grave. His great-grandparents and his parents are buried there. When he passed away in January 2019, he was buried in the parish cemetery for many reasons. The graves at the...
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