The “Seven Last Words of Christ” can seen as the verbal expression of an interior reality: namely, the mind of Christ, as formed according to a deeply ingrained, habitual life practice of living mindfully according to the Lord’s Prayer. Holy Week is an especially fruitful time for prayerful meditation. There are many liturgical events at [...]
This evening begins the holiest time of the year. The ocean of God’s grace is poised to flood your soul as we are brought into the sacred mysteries and transformed by them. He stands ready to open our hearts as we bear witness to the greatest story our world has ever seen. I still remember [...]
I went with Peter to make the arrangements for the Passover supper. When we arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus had told us to look for a man carrying a pitcher of water. We were to follow him into the house he entered, ask to speak to the owner, and say: “The master asks you where is [...]
While we are in this sojourning to our true homeland, we are not fixed immovably in the love of God. Only in heaven, with the blessed, will we see God and his goodness in all of its contours; and once seen, we will desire nothing else. Human love can be fickle; it can sway here [...]
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 [...]
My own continued admiration of Gerald Finzi’s majestic and moving anthem, "Lo, The Full, Final Sacrifice," lies not only in the masterful blend of music and words, but also in the confluence of so many personal memories that touch and move me. Sometimes a piece of music or art brings different aspects of one’s life [...]
It started in a garden—man’s first sin, our fall. It began beneath a tree with fruit that was good and pleasing to the eyes (Gen 3:6). Although we tend to place the blame on the apple based on a Latin pun, some traditions point to the fig tree, whose leaves Adam and Eve used to cover themselves. [...]
Please never forget, we Catholics have a great legacy. We’ve been promoting liberal education since the days of St. Paul. Some of our greatest saints were liberally educated, and promoting all that is good and true and beautiful has been one of our greatest causes. The author recently delivered the address below to the Roman [...]
Unlike the mute stones surrounding Jesus during that great procession of the first Holy Week, let us hail his arrival with shouts. As Jesus approaches our stony hearts, let us cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). As our Lord [...]
A culture without public prayer is a culture that no political intervention can preserve. If the life of prayer is a vocation offered to all, then it follows that the practice of prayer must equally be within the reach of all. It is not an esoteric exercise, in other words, for which only the most [...]
In a world of spoiled children, indigent adults, victim complainers, and entitled brats of all ages, the one who accepts responsibility for himself will have the tools for high self-esteem, achievement, and success in every area of life. I was five years old when I “got saved”. We had been to the Sunday evening service [...]
When we listen to the cross, we hear the call of His love to rise above the misery of our current condition. And from the heights of the cross, we can see into the distant country of our eternal home. John 8: 21-30 sees Jesus in teaching mode but now with the Jewish crowd at [...]
The Feast of the Annunciation is placed in the midst of Lent as an oasis in the desert. Just as the Lord did not leave the Israelites without food and drink for their forty years in the exodus from Egypt, he does not leave us empty-handed in our fast. Along the way, we are blessed [...]
The Letter of Clement provides our first glimpse of the Gospel fused with 'Romanitas'—a vision of Rome not so much as a symbol of strength and power as of unity and peace. Whereas the old 'Pax Romana' was achieved through conquest and force, the new order would be built on the love of Jesus. The [...]