The Silence of God
One of the most pressing questions people have, young students especially, has to do with the problem of evil. Why do bad things happen to good people? And, if God exists, how can he allow so much suffering and evil...
Tagged: Good Friday
“Humans are not mass-produced, but handcrafted”
On Wednesday, I wrote an article imploring a US bishop to reach out to a congressman he has praised and with whom he is a friend on behalf of immigrants who were — without due process — deported and imprisoned...
Do not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ
Jerusalem, Jerusalem! O city of David. Home of the Prophets. Mount Zion, here God dwells with Mankind in his Temple! Golgotha outside the gates. Thrice blessed! Blessed in the wounds and the hands of Jesus Blessed in the wounds in...
Holy Week in the Vatican
Holy Week is beginning and there will be several additional liturgical celebrations in the Vatican in the coming days. Due to his continuing recovery, it is unclear how much Pope Francis will be able to participate in the celebrations this...
Assuming the Sufferings of Others
Several years ago I gave a talk about the Presentation of the Lord that included a reflection Cardinal Ratzinger. I just happened to stumble across it again yesterday and it struck me in a new way this Holy Week. Ratzinger...
Pope Francis’s plans for Holy Week 2024
After a visit in late February to Gemelli Isola Tiberina Hospital and undergoing diagnostic tests, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis was “still feeling unwell,” but planned to preside over Holy Week liturgies nevertheless. On February 29, the Pope’s schedule...
The God Who Abandons Us
“The God who is with us, is the God who abandons us.” These words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer are so ironic. The God who is with us, who stands in solidarity with our human realities of pain and suffering, is the...
Blood and water: A sign of the total gift of Christ
Greetings from Florence, Italy, where my family is spending the Triduum following a visit to Rome. As I mentioned before, the highlight of the trip was my family meeting Pope Francis following his General Audience on Wednesday, April 6. We...
Seeing the Perfect Christ in His Marred Body
When I was in high school, I spent a horrible week consumed by doubt that God is a good God. A trusted community member abused a child of a family that I cared about and this abuse caused deep and...
Political Divisions and the Path to Unity
Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the Preacher to the Papal Household, did not mince words during his homily on Good Friday this year. “Fraternity among Catholics is wounded! Divisions between Churches have torn Christ’s tunic to shreds, and worse still, each shredded...
An old friar’s Good Friday plea for unity
When one thinks of the threads of continuity across the last three papacies, perhaps one of the most overlooked—yet uniquely influential—is Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap., who has served as Preacher to the Papal Household since his appointment by Pope...
“It is finished”
“Jesus was lifted high on the cross in order to descend to the abyss of our suffering. He experienced our deepest sorrows: failure, loss of everything, betrayal by a friend, even abandonment by God. By experiencing in the flesh our...
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