Poetry that Breaks the Chains of Time and Place
In popular media, a great deal of ink has been spilled over the loss of religious practice amongst people in the Western world. What has been neglected…
Preserving our Authentic Humanity: The Vatican’s Meditation on Artificial Intelligence
The Vatican’s recent meditation on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Antiqua et Nova, brings a sense of measured calm to a subject that has caused strong and varying reactions,…
Staccato Note
brittle leaves scatter along the empty street stars wavering in the chilling breeze rusting and rustling trees in the lamplight waxing moon growing to fullness I am…
The Enduring Spirit and the Problem of Power
With the possible exception of India’s Hindu population, the Jewish people embody the oldest living culture on earth. What is most remarkable is that, since Abraham, the…
The Searching Soul: Graham Greene and Catholicism
If your bookshelf of cherished tomes is not inspiring you today, then I would recommend reading Graham Greene, a prolific novelist and essayist of the mid 20th…
The Flowing Soul of the Pilgrim
“Stagnant, lifeless water becomes brackish and muddy, while flowing, singing water remains pure and limpid.” Michel Tournier, The Four Wise Men The practice of pilgrimage has…
Reading as an Antidote to Technology
Concerning technology, we wonder with some impotence how to uphold human dignity and spirit amid the proliferation of AI and the increasingly intimate connection between people and…
The Soldier Who Searched for Death
Once upon a time a young man named Anthony was working in the turnip patch of his mother’s little farm when an officer of the Czar rode…
History as the Law of Force: A Review of Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song
In the early 1990s, my traveling companion and I were approached by a twelve-year-old boy in the Nicaraguan countryside. He asked us if we would like a…
Seeking the Ground in Our Day: Paul Murray’s “The Bee Sting”
Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting is an intense, six-hundred-page novel about a contemporary Irish family of four trying to find their bearings in our world of change…
Crying to the Lord: Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman”
During the season of Lent, Christians are called to the act of repentance. Like a lot of spiritual practices, repentance is approached in a variety of ways…
A Vulnerable Life and The Terror of History
Sarah Bernstein’s 2023 novel Study for Obedience has been shortlisted by a number of literary contests, including The Booker Prize. The novel rests not on plot but…
In Silence
We often know less than we think we know an opening comment on prayerful discernment She laughed at that and went on gabbing like a bird Perhaps…
The Limits of Psychological Theology
In his book Messengers of God, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel conducts a careful reading of the Torah in order to search the mysteries of God and the…
The Power and Presence of Silence
I recently watched a wonderful South Korean film titled The Way Home, a 2002 movie with English subtitles. It tells the story of a spoiled boy from…