Friday, February 5, 20210141mmanuel Kant is not a household name among suburban Americans who don’t read philosophy, but he is one of those giants in the history of human thought whose influence is so immense that it appears anonymous to most.
Friday, January 8, 20210211I learned recently that the priest who baptized me, Monsignor Joseph Ferraro, died of Covid-19 on December 17. Father Ferraro was a Navy chaplain stationed in Oakland, California when my father was on active duty, and he de-heathenized me when I was a month old. I never met Monsignor Joe as an adult, but we exchanged emails several years...
Saturday, November 28, 20200320Christians look to the light of Christ, the true light that knows no darkness or extinguishing (see John 1:4-5), to irradiate the gloom of their own suffering. Our efforts to purify the weak and fluttering flame of our heart from the ravenous cravings of selfishness, lust, and greed dim the light we radiate to others, and can bring us to...
Saturday, October 31, 20200144The prophet Isaiah surely knew he was introducing a shocking concept when he communicated a message of the Lord beginning with the words “Thus says the Lord to His anointed Cyrus” (Isaiah 45:1). The shock is not that the prophet refers to a king as the messiah, but rather that this particular king is not even an Israelite. Cyrus the...
Thursday, October 1, 20200103Among the treasures contained in our monastic hours of prayer, none is more precious to me than Compline, also known as Night Prayer. Its Latin name, Completorium, identifies it as the concluding communal prayer of the day, chanted in the evening twilight or, in the winter months, when the sun has already set.
Tuesday, September 8, 20200164The Swiss theologian Karl Barth is the author of a line that has always fascinated me: in the realm of nature, “Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God” that we possess. I would like to explain why I think he is absolutely correct.
Friday, July 17, 20200176Contemporary readers of St. Paul criticize him for his apparent tolerance of slavery (see Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:22-25; Titus 2:9-10). Given the specter of slavery and racism in our nation’s past (and, alas, the present), we wish that Paul would have spoken more forcefully, from our vantage point, against the institution. Yet we...
Friday, May 29, 20200292The modern Greek word for “Thank you,” eucharisto, immediately calls to our Christian minds the gift of Christ’s body and blood, commemorated in our Eucharistic liturgy. The proper response to eucharisto today might not be as recognizable, but it is equally rich in theological meaning. The word parakalo, which functions as...
Thursday, May 7, 20200345Sheltering in place might not look much like a dark wood, but my time in quarantine has brought Dante to the forefront of my mind. I have long been awed by the brilliance of his “Divine Comedy,” the indescribably beautiful rhythm and rhyme of his Italian, and the sheer bravado that inspired him both to locate his own contemporaries...
Wednesday, April 22, 20200248Luke begins his account of Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah with a rather curious phrase: “Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’” (Luke 9:18). Those who already know the answer might gloss over the sheer oddity of the opening...
