Bread is often the basic element of any meal. Fr. Joseph Dickan, SJ, reflects on how when Jesus says he is the “bread of life,” he is reminding us that he is the fundamental necessity of our lives.
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.
Beavers, Muskrats, and the Real Invitation of Lent
As Lent approaches, Brennan Dour, SJ, reflects on the curious historical case of Catholics in New France classifying beavers as fish during Lent, and the reminder it offers that Lent’s purpose is not a rigid intensifying of rules, but God’s invitation to grow closer to him whatever our circumstances.
For the Love of a Patient After My Own Heart
I arrived early to be an earwitness to the night shift’s report to the dayshift. I admired how the nurse with whom I was to work that day seamlessly received the report that I could only, at best, make half sense of. Knowledge decanted from the mind of one nurse to the next distilling indispensable bits from any distasteful dregs about the previous night. The final tipoff from the drained night-nurse was her impression that our heart transplant patient would soon begin to recover consciousness as the effect of the heavy drugs diminished. It turns out this night would be about two hearts.
2020 was the Year of Big Capital. With St. Joseph, Let’s Make 2021 the Year of The Worker.
Instead of concentration of ownership in the hands of a few capitalists, Catholic Social Teaching envisions workers having common possession with capitalists over the enterprises at which they work.
St. Elizabeth Seton: First American-born Saint | One-Minute Saints
In the face of personal tragedy and driven by the needs in a new nation, Elizabeth Ann Seton’s selfless response led to her becoming the first American-born saint in the Catholic Church.
Catholic Guide to 2021
Break out your calendars! Online and in-person, here are the major Catholic events in 2021.
Goals Set the World on Fire: Messi Nets 644
Messi recently scored his 644th goal for Spanish soccer team FC Barcelona. That goal overcame the record for “most goals for a single club,” formerly held by soccer legend, Pelé. Jesuit soccer fanatic, Ian Peoples, thinks that’s a milestone worth celebrating.
About Family Therapy, the Christmas Creche, and Being Molded Deeply Into God’s Divine Embrace
Imagine it’s Christmas morning again. You reach into your stocking and pull out a hefty lump of clay with directions attached. You’re to make clay figures of the most important people in your life and arrange them in a way that represents each person’s personality and role in the group dynamic. What does the scene reveal? Christopher Alt reflects on a family therapy technique, the Nativity, and allowing ourselves to be molded more deeply into God’s divine embrace.