The difficulty of explaining “why I desire to be a Catholic priest” is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one, rather mysterious and all-encompassing reason: I have heard a still, small voice in the silence of my … Continue reading
self-knowledge
The Art of Dying Well
There is a question that haunts me: How do I die well? This summer, while I visited Catholic patients at the hospital, I found the beginnings of an answer. There, I saw a man die well. A few days before … Continue reading
Bad News Bearers
The Israelites are standing on the East of the Jordan River, getting ready to enter the promised land. Moses has given them the law, and he speaks now, “Today, I have set before your face life and death, good and … Continue reading
Remember What God Has Done
However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to … Continue reading
Only God Knows
Today we are just over two weeks into the season of Lent, a time to refocus and reorder our lives. Just over two weeks ago we were invited to remember that we are dust and that to dust we will … Continue reading
She Calls Out
He stood still when he heard her voice. “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here! Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave simpleness, and live, and walk in the way of insight” … Continue reading
Fake News and Speaking the Truth
You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. (Ps 52:3) Evidently, lies spread more than truth on the internet. A group of scientists published a research report, “The spread of true … Continue reading
Returning to Dust
“In the midst of life we are in death.” Today as priests adorn millions of foreheads with ash, many will hear, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This reminder of death comes from God’s reprimand … Continue reading
The Tongue of the Wise
Sticks and stones may break bones, but words wound hearts. A well chosen insult cuts to the core, searching out secret soft spots so that the fresh wound festers more than the former. How cleverly cruel we can be, delighting … Continue reading
A Helper to Till the Garden
In the Genesis passage at Mass today, God seeks to create a suitable “helper” for the man he placed in the garden. We know the rest of the story. God presents the newly formed woman to the man, who exclaims: … Continue reading
From Wicked Lips
Truth is found in surprising places. We expect to hear prophecy spoken by holy men—and it is—but it’s also sometimes spoken by the wicked, as in the strange story of Balaam. We find the story in Numbers 22-24, and it’s worth … Continue reading
In the Image
Above is an image of Zinaida Serebriakova, a woman created in the image of the Triune God. Zinaida sees herself in the mirror and knows herself; she sees herself to be beautiful, knows herself to be good. Seeing and knowing … Continue reading
An Open Ear
There is more to the Mass than the ear can hear. When the faithful settle back into their pews after the Gospel proclamation, for example, the priest or deacon, having reverenced the Book of the Gospels with a kiss, recites … Continue reading
Spiritually Ambidextrous
St. Paul often distinguishes between desires of the flesh and desires of the spirit, between those desires that entangle us with sin and those that draw us to God. These are at war within us, such that often we feel … Continue reading
The Wisdom of Friends
There abides in the human heart a desire for deep and expansive vision. This is proven by the yearning we have for building skyscrapers that provide stunning views of a city’s downtown or skywalks like the one overlooking the Grand … Continue reading
Make No Resolutions
10, 9, 8, 7, 6,…It’s New Year’s Eve and as the countdown to the new year draws near you may be thinking that you should make a resolution to change your life. We’ve all heard it before, and usually the … 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
Stressed?
Are you stressed? Are you overwhelmed with work? Does your day feel like one, big, exhausting effort just to survive? Are you so desperately busy that you’ve started identifying with Wile E. Coyote in his feverishly frantic and fatally futile … Continue reading
Roots
A tree’s fruit should reveal the quality of its root. What a man says and does should reveal the quality of his heart. The root of a righteous act is a heart converted to God. Rooted like this, one’s heart … Continue reading
Poor Wayfaring Strangers
November is a month of hope for the Christian. In this time, both in the saints and the sinners, we remember those who have gone before us on this earth—those who have now crossed the threshold into eternity. We reflect … 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
Stuck in the Molasses Swamp
How sad, how lack-luster a life he leadsWho delights to describe the death he sees.How rotten be the heart of a brotherWho snivels ‘bout the rot in another! ***** One thing we can know for certain about heaven is that … Continue reading
Watching the Corn Grow
For rural communities, keeping tabs on the corn crop is simply part of life. This makes a good deal of sense: the success or failure of the crop hugely impacts the economic well-being of the community, so it is quite … 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
“Barb, I Love You?”
Theodore is in a dilemma. Over the past few months, he has fallen head-over-heels in love with Barb. She is the woman of his dreams: beautiful, affectionate, gentle, and compassionate. Whenever he treads in Barb’s presence, Theodore’s heart is close … Continue reading