In August of last year, I wrote a reflection on chronic illness, chronic pain, and the way world leaders, including Pope Francis and former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, deal with these afflictions. Since I wrote this reflection, the subject...
Pope Francis’s trip to Iraq has been one of the most energizing moments in recent Iraqi history. A moment of jubilation and hope that one analyst likened to the brief euphoria felt when Iraqi won the Asian Cup in 2007....
At the beginning of Lent, I reflected on our Gospel call to grow in mercy during this season. Connected to and emerging from this theme of mercy, I believe Jesus is further asking us to form our hearts in union...
On an unexceptional Friday in February 2012, I came home for a weekend away from college life, as students regularly do. What set my trip apart from others was my motivation: I wasn’t looking to visit family or pets, nor...
Continuing to read Pope Francis’s Fratelli Tutti during Lent I am focusing on these words from Chapter 2: “Each day we have to decide whether to be Good Samaritans or indifferent bystanders” (FT 69). What if we live a life...
This reflection on the Sunday readings for March 7, 2021 (the Third Sunday in Lent) was written by Fr. Daniel J. Merz, SLD. Fr. Dan is a priest of the Jefferson City diocese and currently serves as the pastor of the...
While growing up in Canada, I vividly remember a moment that occurred during my elementary school’s lunch recess. Our prayer group, which met every Wednesday to say the Rosary, was just finishing up when a friend noticed a hung portrait...
One of the frequent complaints we hear these days is about the dangers of an internet insularity. It was one of Pope Francis’ brilliant points in Fratelli Tutti, that digital media has often created the illusion of relationship and connection...
In the first week of Lent I learned a lot from the Fratelli Tutti Study Guide, which I chose as a focus for these forty days. Still blinking in the sunlight after breaking free from the radical traditionalist (or “rad-trad”)...
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...
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...
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...
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