Tuesday, May 5, 20200456In these trying times of a pandemic, many people are expressing a beautiful desire to pray — to pray for protection from the coronavirus, for fast and full recoveries, for economic stability, for fruitful occupation in isolation, for peace at home and in our nation, for honesty and solidarity in our global community, and for so many...
Sunday, April 19, 20200204As we move further into this global program of “social distancing” because of COVID-19, millions around the world are trying to figure out what to do with all the time they must now spend in isolation at home.
Tuesday, April 7, 20200216The coronavirus is creating a big challenge for teachers and students around the world. My heart goes out to the students, who, if they are among the lucky ones, are sitting at home with online schoolwork, but without the ability to spend time with their classmates in person, play sports, enjoy clubs, and do other fun things. My heart...
Saturday, March 21, 20200662We’re a few weeks into Lent, and since we’ve had some time now to try our Lenten disciplines of praying, fasting and almsgiving, let’s take a moment to reevaluate them in light of some ancient wisdom. Here are three tips about fasting from the Rule of St. Benedict.
Saturday, February 22, 20200175I recently finished a fascinating book by Norman Doidge on neuroplasticity, “The Brain that Changes Itself.” It’s a very readable book about how science is overturning the “mechanistic” view of the human being, which, Doidge argues, has dominated culture at least since the philosopher-scientist René Descartes (1596-1600)....
Wednesday, January 22, 20200270I do not often go to the movies, but I do try to see everything I can by the director Terrence Malick, since I think he is for movies what Michelangelo was for marble — a master of the medium like no other. His most recent movie, “A Hidden Life,” is one of the most interiorly beautiful movies I’ve ever seen. It recounts the...
Friday, December 20, 20190228It’s been many months now since the Feast of Corpus Christi, but the Eucharist has been on my mind ever since, especially as Advent begins and we rekindle our longing for the presence of Christ. The feast was first celebrated in Belgium in 1247 and then extended to the entire Church by Urban IV in 1264 in order to affirm the real,...
Monday, November 18, 20190217People today are deeply affected by the challenges of unity and diversity, especially the younger generations. These challenges are a chance for the Gospel to show its power.
For some people, our society’s affirmation of diversity must be so uncompromising that truth and unity, and therefore community, become acceptable losses. I...
Saturday, October 19, 20190119St. John Henry Cardinal Newman is an ecumenical saint: that is, he is a saint who in a sense belongs to all Christians, inasmuch as his eventual conversion to Catholicism was preceded by other conversions to other Christian traditions, all of which can be seen as representing a progressively deeper discovery of the Gospel. Before...
Saturday, September 21, 20190312I was pleasantly surprised earlier this summer when I saw confirmed in the prestigious journal Scientific American (May 2019) something I had often heard from some Catholics: namely, the hormonal contraceptives that our society offers millions of women have a rather dubious origin and an even more questionable future.
