With eyes that pierce every illusion, Jesus saw us drowning in this stupor of gnawing desires and lies. To snatch our attention out of the swamp, he suffered a death of such torture and abandonment that it shocks us. In college I visited Las Vegas—and I was unimpressed. Sin City markets itself with a swagger [...]
When we take up the real cross, instead of seeking honor through it, we embrace its dishonor. Our heavier crosses are unaesthetic—ugly. They don’t bring admiring glances; rather, they humiliate. I used to frequently attend Mass in a church with a mostly beautiful series of painted Stations of the Cross. I say “mostly” only because the eleventh station, [...]
Even if we don’t climb to the height of holiness, or enjoy mystical contemplation to the point that our whole lives become suffused with it, we can strive to be more prayerful than we are, and we need to do nothing else but to give ourselves to God throughout the day to accomplish it. One [...]
The living water of God’s saving work spreads out through the world into many diverse tributaries. Just as much as we need God to call preachers to labor in the vineyard, so we need Christians who aren’t called to preach themselves to support the Church’s mission by their prayers. Saint Paul, the paradigmatic preacher, had [...]
Jesus Christ teaches that we totally rely on his grace to possess friendship with him, to resist temptation, and to perform good works. Our Lord taught this to his Apostles the evening before he courageously suffered his Passion and purchased that grace for us: As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides [...]