Thrown by Love
A man must not choose his neighbor: he must take the neighbor that God sends him. The neighbor is just the man who is next to you at the moment, the man with whom any business has brought you into...
View ArticleCome to the Water!
Our first reading for this weekend is taken from the fifty-fifth chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah. The “second” section of Isaiah dates from around the time of the return of Israel from...
View ArticleSt. Bernard’s Path of Love
Today the Church celebrates the life and work of St. Bernard, an abbot of the Cistercian order and a Doctor of the Church. St. Bernard was part of the great flowering of Christian civilization that...
View ArticleWalking to Jerusalem with Jesus, and Putting Up With a Lot
When the days for Jesus’ being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem. . . . [One to whom he called] replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” But Jesus...
View Article“The Elephant Man” and the Culture of Contempt
This October marks the fortieth anniversary of a truly great work of art, a film that should be required viewing for high school students: The Elephant Man. Its greatness lies, first and foremost, in...
View ArticleLord, Bless That Person I Hate So Much
My car is almost twenty years old and the CD player no longer works, so while driving alone my only options are the radio or silent prayerfulness. I’d love to say that as I dashed out to run errands...
View ArticleThe Shocking Truth: It Is Good That You Exist
A decade ago, when I daily toiled at my blog, I would sift through emails or moderate comments and occasionally encounter those who would presume to tell me I was going to hell. Sometimes I would see...
View ArticleWhat Makes a Family Holy?
The Bible is not particularly sentimental about families. What makes a family holy, as far as the biblical writers are concerned, is its willingness to surrender to the purpose of God. We see this in a...
View ArticleSocial Media and Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places
If you’re like me, you’ve had just about enough of the weird fog and fug that has become social media—those personal-information-devouring echo chambers of sound and fury signifying nothing. An hour...
View ArticleWhen Hating God and the World Seems Reasonable
There are times when, all too innocently and because we have not been mindful of what is before us, we give too much license to a dead past that cannot be changed, and then we lose our handle on...
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