The morning is gentle. I’ve come at the perfect time to sit and pray near the old living room windows. The sign of the cross, coffee on the window sill, closed eyes. I’m opaque inside today. I pray about yesterday. And sometimes my prayer isn’t always clear.
The Catholic Church condemns animal cruelty. Does our consumption of animal products violate this teaching?
I’ve been throwing pottery for over a year now. For a while, I had the technique down, or at least down enough to center the clay and build from there. But lately, I have had the worst time centering the clay. As I sit with my struggles to center the clay, my mind wanders to the world around me: does anything feel centered these days?
A certain memory of Peter Claver is often used by Catholics to distance themselves from actually engaging in ministry or relationships with Black Americans. Yet this false image of Claver, rather than absolving Catholics of their responsibilities towards Black people, is rather an even more scathing indictment of our indifference. Our image of Claver is a call to all of us Catholics to be who he was not.
“This whole year has felt like a Lenten penance in the desert, so I’m not thinking about what to give up. Instead, I enter this season replaying images of that day with Javier.” Christopher Alt, SJ, recounts the story of his friend’s first day out of prison and considers what lessons it has for us as we see promises of the end of the pandemic and move into Lent.
Every other year, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) hosts its SEEK conference that draws thousands of young Catholics together to encounter Christ and share the Gospel. As a virtual event this year, SEEK21 was actually the largest it’s ever been, with 27,000 participants from 20 countries on 6 continents. Check out our 5 key takeaways.
The prophet Joel extolls the people of God to rend their hearts and not their garments to be touched and broken and changed at a deeper level than what is visible, a profound, inner conversion, one of the heart. And God will find us in the most beautiful ways. All we have to do is open the door. Find out what happens when I open a door and start seeing Christ on the other side.
O Death, Where is Thy Sting: A Meditation on Suffering, a new book by Brother Joe Hoover doesn’t offer theodicies or justifications of God’s goodness; it is a collection of thoughts from a man trying to process the suffering in the world.
In the aftermath of an explosion, COVID-19 lockdowns, and economic challenges, Pope Francis’s call to fraternity resounds in religiously pluralistic Beirut.
Have you ever wondered what happens when you pray? Or how to pray? Or even why to pray? Well Fr. James Martin has a book for that! Check out our review of “Learning to Pray”.