Misplaced in the Woods

I once got lost in the woods. I had spent the day hiking with much of my novitiate class, and four of us toured an off-trail route later in the afternoon. Because of a hurt ankle, I lagged behind at … Continue reading

Beheading Statues

It was hardly enough for the French revolutionaries to behead just one king. Nine months later, in October 1793, anti-royalists tore down 28 statues of Judean kings mistaken for French monarchs from the façade of Notre Dame Cathedral and guillotined … Continue reading

Self-Enclosures and Jammed Locks

I once spent a frigid night awake at a Florentine McDonald’s after getting stuck at the train station Firenze Santa Maria Novella. That part of the night wasn’t horrible. I conversed with a native Florentine who, among other things, boasted … Continue reading

The Tears of St. Monica

Thus you gave another answer through your priest, a certain bishop nurtured in the Church and trained in your books. When that woman implored him to consider speaking with me, to refute my errors, un-teach me evil, and teach me … Continue reading

Indeed You Love Truth in the Heart

The Acts of the Apostles recounts a startling run-in between the apostles and Ananias and Sapphira. Having sold property and presented the proceeds to the early Church community, the couple then failed to present all the proceeds and then lied … Continue reading

Loosing the Tongue

Speaking does not imply saying anything, though maybe it should. Someone can talk a lot and yet have said nothing at all—think chitchatterers, depleted athletes, and political geniuses. This is because real speech reveals what is in the heart: truths … Continue reading

A Remedy for the Absurd

In 1947, Albert Camus published La Peste, a novel recounting a plague that settles into Oran in French Algeria. After a few citizens contract it, the weekly death toll climbs, prompting plague regulations that seal off the town and quarantine … Continue reading

Chocolate and Ashes

Can you read my mind and know what I am thinking? You probably cannot without my help. Nevertheless, what others think, especially those with whom we live, work, or love, matters to us. Often we pick up a person’s general … Continue reading

Why Saint Nicholas Matters

In our shared human experience, we frequently find ourselves carrying other people’s burdens, seeking, if we can, to alleviate them, with others doing the same for us. This is mercy. By showing mercy, we take another’s misery and seek to … Continue reading