“We should be willing to act as a balm for all wounds.”- Etty Hillesum How do we remember traumatic events of the past? Richard Kearney, a philosophy professor at Boston College, asked this question with specific reference to the Shoah.1 It is a poignant question,...
Even Jesus sought out friends. Eric Immel, SJ, reminds us of the friendship that Jesus was calling the first disciples into in this week’s One-Minute Homily. Based on the readings for Sunday, January 26. Moving stinks. Let’s be honest – Any transition can...
Love. Betrayal. Forgiveness. Death. These themes occur in Greta Gerwig’s recent adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Moving between past and present, Gerwig shows us the joys and struggles of four sisters as they navigate adolescence and adulthood. Raised...
It was the first day of the academic year and I was downtown Chicago, sitting in a social work class. There were about twenty-five students filling the small auditorium style classroom. Waiting. A few moments later, a stately-looking older gentleman walked in and...
The new year began with an explosion heard around the world. On January 3, President Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport by drone strike. Many at home and abroad have challenged President Trump’s...
Facing our history can be disheartening and inspiring, often at the same time. Every human life – and nation, and society, and institution – is marked both by the wound of sin and the ointment of grace. In recent years the Society of Jesus in the United States has had...
John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to those around him. Jeff Ryan Miraflor, SJ, reminds us that we’re called to do the same in this week’s One-Minute Homily. Based on the readings for Sunday, January 19, 2020, which you can find here:...
I hate cheaters. I mean, don’t we all? And the Houston Astros cheated. We knew that back in November, but this week’s suspensions of Jeff Luhnow and A.J. Hinch (Astros general manager and manager, respectively) handed down by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred catapults the...
In the last year, a small phrase from the Mass I’d not previously paid much attention to, I learned to love. It is the preface to the Our Father when the priest says, “At the savior’s command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to say…” I recall when...
I am both excited to watch the national championship game tonight (geaux tigers!), and I also believe college football has turned into liturgical worship. Let me explain. Sports are so ingrained in my being that imagining my life without them is not imagining my life...
