Reconciliation, Renewal, and Rebirth
Advent is a time of preparation, a time of celebration, and a time of reflection. If our minds and hearts are truly focused on the season as a time of preparation for the birth of Christ, then we must enter...
Tagged: conversion
On Metanoia and Grace
In 1989, a youth minister named Janie Tinklenberg read a book authored by Topeka minister Charles M. Sheldon entitled In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? In the book, Sheldon challenged his readers to consider how Jesus would respond when...
Let’s Not Canonize Shia Just Yet
Much has been made in recent weeks of actor Shia LaBeouf’s reported conversion to Roman Catholicism. To label Mr. LeBeouf, who was reared in a household he has characterized as “hippie Jewish,” a true convert to the ways of the...
The challenges of celebrity conversions
In our increasingly secular world, one would not expect a religious conversion to necessarily be breaking news. Yet when actor Shia LaBeouf shared in an interview with Bishop Robert Barron that he had decided to enter the Catholic Church after...
Gloria Purvis: None of this was planned
Listen on: Apple | Google | Spotify “It was in that silence, while we were in the crypt church of the cathedral during adoration with the monstrance exposed, that I had an experience that I could only call a mystical experience where I was— all...
Conversion is for Good People Too
A reflection on the Readings for March 20, 2022 — the Third Sunday of Lent (Year C) Over the last few years, I have offered adult faith-formation series based on some of the great saints of the Church. Thus far...
“Discipleship” means Conversion
Conversion is not a feel-good word. There is an interior magic in every beginning, says Hermann Hesse, but life teaches us that there is also a lot of effort. Looking back to the Church’s sometimes glorified past for answers concerning...
The Epiphany – Traditions and Lessons of the Magi
A reflection on the Feast of the Epiphany — (Click here for audio) Epiphany is a word meaning ‘manifestation’. It is an event as important as Christmas itself. Jesus incarnate at Christmas and Jesus made manifest to the world at...
Pope Francis and the humility of the newborn King
Pope Francis has said some penetrating and at times disarming words on the infant Jesus this week, in the days leading up to Christmas. A theme that he has returned to repeatedly is the humility of the Savior of the...
The Blessed Virgin, Pope Francis, and the Invitation to Authentic Dialogue
As someone raised in an Evangelical home on the edge of the Bible Belt, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that I was wary of the devotion that Catholics have for the Blessed Virgin Mary. The usual...
“A-ha” moments in the journey of faith
Have you ever had an “a-ha” moment? Six decades on this earth have taught me two lessons about “a-ha” moments. One: when they arrive, pay attention. Two: when it passes, spend some time looking back and more deeply. This week’s...
Confessions of a former Pope Francis opponent
I am a convert to the Catholic faith, having been raised in a non-denominational Christian home and subsequently drifting between various stages of belief and doubt, though always claiming to believe in Jesus even if I didn’t live for Him....
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