Today we celebrate St. Martin of Tours, a saint marked by and remembered for his mercy. We can hear him asking us this question: “Do you give alms? And tell me, when you give alms, do you look into the … Continue reading
Virtue & Moral Life
Becoming a Saint
Saints drive me crazy at times. Praying The Litany of Dominican Saints and Blesseds or reading Saint Dominic’s Family by Sr. Mary Jean Dorcy is both very inspiring but also depressing. The saints we rightly celebrate accomplished many great works … Continue reading
Light in the Darkness
Light veils monsters to weak eyes. This fact is familiar if you’ve ever been spotted in the dark. A blinding flash fills your doe eyes, abruptly ending your midnight escapades. Frozen, you hold your breath, waiting to see who is … Continue reading
Love’s Hatred
Some Christians have misgivings about the slogan “Love the sinner; hate the sin.” For them, the slogan seems “judgmental” and, therefore, fundamentally unchristian. I can understand a certain amount of suspicion. We don’t want to turn into fault-finders or to … Continue reading
Fixer Uppers
We all need to be fixed. Of course, we generally try to avoid admitting this to each other, and so it’s often God Who gets to hear the most about our brokenness. “Jesus, I really hurt my brother this morning. … Continue reading
Heaven on Earth
Holiness is not something that we will get to someday. We are called to holiness today by living life for the sake of Heaven day by day. We have a tendency to be hobbits, elves, or dwarfs—and all in the … Continue reading
The Shackles of Love
In the 2007 movie Juno, a married man waiting to adopt a child gets cold feet. He not only backs out of the adoption, but he also leaves his wife. While he’s working toward this decision, he laments that his … 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