There is a story about how St. John of the Cross celebrated Christmas: “On Christmas day . . . St. John of the Cross, while at ease with his brethren at recreation, took the image of the Holy Infant from … Continue reading
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Why Faith is Personal
Imagine you’re observing a sunset with a friend. Together you quietly watch the rays of light find their way through the now leafless trees, and you enjoy the brief warmth of the autumn sun. The evening is quiet and peaceful, … Continue reading
Sigrid Undset and an Escape to Reality
In times of crisis, both personal and ecclesial, it can be a great comfort to revisit the lives of Catholics who have gone before us, who have suffered for the faith valiantly (or at least patiently), and have faced the … Continue reading
You Shall Be a Sign for Them
Poor Ezekiel. Obedient to God’s request, the prophet packed a bag, dug through a wall with his hands, and, in the evening, scrambled through that hole and wandered off into the darkness while other people looked on. Many of them … Continue reading
The Power of Mourning
“Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mt 5:4). With this beatitude Jesus gives us the promise that tears can count for something. But what do they count for? We might think that those who mourn will … Continue reading
No One Will Take Your Joy
Joy is not the primary goal of the Christian life; rather it is one of the results or “fruits” of that life. Because we cannot fake true joy, the Christian life does not consist of a forced smile and the … Continue reading
An Everyday Search
Perhaps you’ve found yourself caught in the suffocating everydayness of life. Get up, eat breakfast, go to work, pick up the kids, make dinner, watch TV, go to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. Every morning’s alarm might as well be the … Continue reading
The Day Before Thanksgiving
The day before Thanksgiving. Sleep in. Enjoy the warmth of the bed as it keeps away the chill in your room. Stay away from the world for a little longer this morning. No job forces you from your sleepiness today. … Continue reading
The True Axis of the Earth
In C. S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, dead souls ascend by bus from a hellish suburbia to the edge of heaven. For the dead souls, everything in this new land overwhelms. The leaves are heavy, the light blinding, even the … Continue reading
Lord, that I may see (more than myself)
After listening to a talk about the dangers of narcissism in the spiritual life, a brother turned to me and said, “I’m pretty sure that whole talk was about me.” I assured him that the talk was definitely about me. … Continue reading
Homesick for Heaven
I recently came across a line by Samuel Johnson that struck me as having a particular relevance to Dominican friars: “A man uncommitted is at home everywhere; unless he may be said to be at home nowhere.” As mendicants, we … Continue reading
Latin and the Language of God
Prayer can be described as conversation with God, but in what language? What if, when God speaks, it sounds like nonsense to us? Learning to pray, to be with God, to converse with him, is a bit like learning a … Continue reading
The Face of an Angel
Yesterday we celebrated the birth of the Son of God. Today we remember the death of a man. Through Advent we watched for the coming of God, before being surprised to see angelic hosts and to hear the cry of … Continue reading
The End of Mercy
During my novitiate year, I visited residents in an assisted living facility every week. Sometimes the interactions were whimsical (once, a resident advised me on cheap places to take a girl on a first date—I don’t think he quite understood … Continue reading
It was good for me to be afflicted?
After years of interrogation at the hands of the Soviet secret police, the American Jesuit Walter Ciszek reached a breaking point. He had been falsely accused of spying for the Vatican and was subjected to isolation and near starvation. As … Continue reading