We learn the most when we’re most open to the newness of Christ. Brian Kemper, SJ, reflects on how Jesus call us to respond with the fullness of love. Based on the readings from the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Finding Hope in Christ the Innocent Lamb
How are humans meant to understand suffering? Jackson Graham, SJ, reflects on a fable by Jane Collier and how it shows us the way that Christ, the true Lamb, empathizes with and accompanies us in our own experiences of suffering.
A Grace Worthy of Our Attention
“Difficult consolation” is the grace that helps us realize humanity is messy, and that, even though we might not want to experience the pains of the world, we’re grateful that God doesn’t make us experience them alone. Jesus models that for us.
Ask God First: Rethinking Our Lenten Sacrifice
Before Lent, we often feel a rush of anxiety or excitement as we try to answer the question: “what are you giving up?” As we prepare to enter this new liturgical season, Eric invites us to ask a deeper question, considering what God might desire for us in this time.
My Catholic Faith Pushed Me to Adopt an Almost Vegan Diet
The Catholic Church condemns animal cruelty. Does our consumption of animal products violate this teaching?
Freestyle Rapping in the Image and Likeness of God
What would St. Augustine have to say about freestyle rapping? It’s a remarkable talent that reveals more than just a rapper’s skills, like those showcased by the great Harry Mack. It can reveal how we are created in the image and likeness of God. And Augustine shows us how.
Centering the Lives of People Enslaved to the Jesuits: Black History, Memory, and Reconciliation
Most existing histories of Jesuit slaveholding prioritize the actions and voices of Jesuit slaveholders, and not the people they held in bondage. Ayan Ali tells about her research with the Jesuits’ Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project which seeks to address this historical bias by conducting extensive historical research with an intentional focus on the lives of enslaved people.
The Potter and the Bowl: In Whose Hands Do We Find Ourselves?
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?
Catholic 101: How are we saved?
“Have you been saved?” It is a question we might not like to be asked by a stranger, but it is a question worth pondering over. Have we been saved? What does it mean to be saved? And what does the Church teach about salvation? This addition to the Catholic 101 series provides some helpful insights on the Church’s teaching about salvation.
For a Church That is Unafraid to Welcome Black People
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.