In her 2004 book Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit presents a compelling model of humanity in crisis. In the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, she recounts, individual people rose above their differences and formed the communities necessary to sustain...
Smartphone notifications often make me feel like a marionette, like I’m attached to a thousand strings pulling at me all at once. Text messages, phone calls, emails, and social media alerts seem to be endless, leading some recent researchers to point out that these...
In his first public miracle, Jesus quietly provides for the needs of the hosts at the wedding at Cana. Christopher Smith, SJ, reflects on the ways that Jesus similarly provides for us, sometimes when we aren’t even aware of it. Based on the readings for Sunday,...
This is the sixth installment of A Deacon’s Diary. In the fifth installment, strange dreams kept waking Steve up. I. She said to me: You’re the one who’ll come and put the coins on the eyes of the dead. It was almost the darkest day of the year. I was in the middle...
“Firma aquí.” “Sign here.” I glanced over the document written in Spanish legalese. “Secuestro” (“kidnapping”) and “rescate” (“ransom”) jumped off the page. My eyes bulged and my pulse quickened. Only three days earlier I had professed my first vows in Los Angeles;...
Each day I am at Belize Central Prison, I pray a Hail Mary during my walk from the youth facility to the rehabilitation center.1 Sometimes, I pray more than one. But at the very least, as soon as I part ways with Ian, my fellow Jesuit regent and companion, “Hail...
I never had much of a knack for photography. I don’t have any talent for original art design. I can’t conjure up magical scenes in my head and bring them to life. Neither the composition nor the color scheme you see displayed below come from my imagination....
The Baptism of Jesus Christ was pretty spectacular. A dove descended from Heaven and the voice of God could be heard. Fr. Danny Gustafson, SJ, reflects on the ways that God is similarly present at every baptism. Based on the readings for Sunday, January 9, 2022. What...
In a classic scene from Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Scuttle the seagull tries to show Ariel how to use the “human stuff” she found in a shipwreck. He confidently explains that a fork (“dinglehopper”) is used to comb hair, while a tobacco pipe (“snarfblatt”) is a...
Matthew calls them “Magi” Everyone else skips them But nobody ever calls them “kings” Or “wise men” We did that. The later ones Who wanted to worship, to follow, Who couldn’t imagine foreign wisdom Or authority That wasn’t a monarch Or a man How we labor to squeeze...
