Maybe I Missed God
My kids and I always have theological discussions. I’ve been talking to them about God, faith, Catholicism, in one way or another, since each of them was born, and while I love babies and toddlers, I am happy to have…
The Mystical Boat
“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your…
Time for Hope
Jesus has redeemed the time. I’d not understood this until recently. I thought that we (each of us Christians) were called to redeem the time. Where did I come up with such a notion? Well, here and there, from this…
The Humiliated Christ in Russia
Caryll Houselander was an interesting cat: quirky and Catholic, a bit of a mystic, a bit of a crazy cat lady without the cats. She was born in England in 1901 and died of breast cancer at the age of…
All We Need for the Journey
For one reason or another, I saved a Magnificat meditation by Dorothy Day. Her words appear in purple. Today the atmosphere is very heavy. Rain threatens. So often one is overcome with a tragic sense of the meaninglessness of our…
An Encounter
Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete tells me that being a Christian is about an encounter with Jesus that changes your entire life. I don’t dispute what he says, but I don’t know that I can put my finger on such an encounter…
Who Do You Serve?
Father Anthony Giambrone, O.P. wrote a Magnificat essay about Peter’s shadow, which just so happened to heal those thronging about him after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Our monthly guide through the more whimsical elements of the Bible acknowledges folklore motifs…
This Milky Way of Souls
I have been reading The Road to Vatican II by Maureen Sullivan, OP, in two ways these past few weeks. Sister Maureen was one of my professors in college, and I’m glad I went ahead and bought this book, as…
One Traveler
Perhaps these words from Bishop Kenneth Untener (as shared by Maureen Sullivan, OP) in her book, The Road to Vatican II, are good openers for some thoughts. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise…
No, One Size Doesn’t Cut It
I like the concept of subsidiarity. An early explanation for the idea can be found in The Old Testament. In the 18th chapter of Exodus, Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, shows up in the wilderness and observes how Moses interacts with the…
Your Own Darkness
Carl Jung wrote, “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” Jung is another one of those people I’ve not let myself explore, but it might be time to change that. The…
Thinking and Knowing
Art and poetry get banished from our lives, and we are impoverished. We put our hands in our empty pockets and wonder why nothing fills them. We turn to roadmaps and instruction manuals but are still unable to decipher how…
