Friday, May 21, 20210237As the successor of St. Peter, the bishop of Rome receives the command from Jesus to the first of the apostles as his own: “Strengthen your brothers” (Lk 22:32). Catholic theology has always understood that command, along with other references to Peter’s primacy (Mt 10:1-2; 16:16-18; Acts 1-2; etc.), to reflect the unique mission...
Sunday, April 18, 20210143The first Christian Bible study was held Easter Sunday on the road to Emmaus. Cleopas and his anonymous traveling companion are wallowing in despair about the death of Jesus, to such an extent that they are fleeing Jerusalem moments after hearing reports that the tomb was empty. Jesus, unrecognized on the road, joins the conversation and...
Sunday, March 21, 20210379I am not a psychologist in the modern technical sense of the term. I have no training in matters dealing with the brain or nervous system, and I possess only a rudimentary knowledge of human biochemistry. But I do love uncovering the etymologies of words, and therefore I can say that I aim to be a psychologist in the original sense of...
Friday, February 5, 20210223mmanuel 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, 20210296I 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, 20200420Christians 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, 20200215The 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, 20200139Among 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, 20200208The 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, 20200240Contemporary 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...
