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In a presentation titled, “The Danger of a Single Story,” writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says that, as impressionable children, some of us absorbed and adopted one-dimensional impressions of certain classes of people after hearing “single stories” about them.
Read MoreEarly in life we’re told that sticks and stones may break our bones, but words are harmless. Big fat lie. Being a chubby kid, and chubby teen, and chubby young adult, and chubby old man, I was leveled…
Read More“Quite a storm we had Friday,” we say. We’ve all got a storm story. If we’re still around to tell a storm story, it means we made it. In a word, we “weathered” the storm. Even though we may have…
Read MoreIn a 2015 speech in Bolivia, Pope Francis said: When we look into the eyes of the suffering, when we see the faces of the endangered campesino, the poor laborer, the downtrodden native, the homeless family,…
Read MoreOur attachments and addictions to which we give time, energy, and attention are evidence of our unrelenting longings and desires. In the end, they fail to satisfy and ultimately, if we’re lucky, bring us to our knees. To…
Read MoreOur landscapes—our governments, churches, schools, workplaces, cities, neighborhoods, and homes—are invariably fields of weeds among wheat. Good progresses, yet evil does, too. Our discouragement with the current landscape and all those weeds may lead us, in the words of today’s…
Read MoreOne may look at the world and be troubled or cynical at how little grain, how little good, has come from century after century of sowing of God’s word. On the other hand, one might be amazed that God’s word…
Read More“Come to me, and I will give you rest.” This familiar gospel passage rings just right on a lazy July weekend. If we haven’t yet gotten into the summer groove, Jesus encourages the hard-working and world-weary to take…
Read MoreAn influential woman welcomed the prophet, Elisha, providing him a little room on the roof: bed, table, chair, and lamp. In return for receiving the prophet—given that prophets can be hard to take—she received a prophet’s reward: she…
Read MoreThe Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., says that her father was a freedom fighter and a civil rights leader, but his essence was something else. “He was a pastor,” says King. “He was a…
Read MoreFriday was the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Greeks of an earlier time might have celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Spleen. Or they might have said that they love you with their whole liver. While we know…
Read MoreMass would be easier if it I could do it all by myself. Or with people just like me: those who looked like me, talked like me, thought like me, believed just like me. My self-absorption could go unchallenged. If…
Read MoreThere is a legend about the brilliant bishop, St. Augustine. While walking on the beach one June day, he came upon a little boy with a bucket, running back and forth from sea to shore, pouring water into…
Read MoreI’ve stopped telling the joke about the Holy Trinity trying to decide where to go on vacation. The punchline has the Holy Spirit saying, “Let’s go to Rome. I’ve never been there.” Audience reaction is always mixed, and sometimes the…
Read MoreAfter she was sexually abused at the age of seven, the poet, Maya Angelou, did not speak for nearly ten years. Out of that devastation and silence, she rose to become a person of rare eloquence. She attributed…
Read More“[God] is our Father; even more [God] is our Mother.” So said Blessed Pope John Paul I. Had Jesus not been born into the deeply patriarchal culture and time in which he was, he himself may…
Read MoreThe image of the Good Shepherd is one of the most familiar and beloved in our tradition. Some, however, find it problematic, even irritating. Commentators often point out that comparing people to sheep reduces the intelligence of humans who, if…
Read More“We were hoping that he would be the one.” We were hoping. We were hoping that she would get better. We were hoping that he would change. We were hoping that she would stop, hoping that…
Read MoreThey devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. They had all things in common. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in…
Read MoreAfter 40 days of lead-up, you’d think we get a bit more razzle-dazzle than, “We don’t know where they put him.” But stay tuned for what we might call “The Resurrection Tour.” In the next 50 days, Jesus will make…
Read MoreIn all the accounts of Jesus’ passion, we’re told that as Jesus was led away, Peter followed him “at a distance.” The women followed Jesus all the way to the cross, but then stood looking on “from a…
Read MoreFriday was the feast day of St. Óscar Romero and the 43rd anniversary of his assassination while saying Mass in the chapel of a cancer center in San Salvador. St. Óscar endured some measure of fear, knowing that…
Read MoreWalker Percy writes, “There are few joys greater than drinking cool water after a serious thirst.” The thirsty one in today’s gospel is Jesus. We, who usually turn to God for help, find Jesus, the Christ,…
Read MoreI had lunch on Friday with my friend Ann, a social worker and therapist, and asked her if she could tell me why, at my advanced age, I feel quite unadvanced when it comes to emotional and psychological…
Read MoreLent is a so-called “penitential” season. To be sure, Lent involves penance. It includes giving up and giving over whatever it is that we need to give up and over: both the self-aggrandizing and the self-minimizing that Jesus…
Read MoreThe archbishop of Paris during World War II, Cardinal Emmanuel Suhard, says that being a witness means living in such a way “that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.” In other words, the…
Read MoreOne of my more irrational fears is that one day my dog, Chucho, is going to start talking. He has no filter, so he’ll no doubt blab about everything to everybody. Almost as unlikely, I once met a…
Read MoreIn the familiar medieval legend, Faust, cultured and successful, is nevertheless dissatisfied with his life, leading him to make a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. He “sells his soul.” Perhaps we’ve…
Read MoreFather Henri Nouwen writes, The world tells you many lies about who you are, and you simply have to be realistic enough to remind yourself of this. Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to…
Read MoreOnce upon a time there are three—yes, three, very wise scholars of the natural sciences…They are sitting around in their own countries minding their own business when a bright star lodges in the right eye of each of them. It is so bright that none…
Read MoreAt Christmas, Mary deserves her own feast for all that she’s been through. We’re told that Mary held on to everything about it, all of it, reflecting on it “in her heart”—not in her mind or head, but…
Read More“The Gift of Salvation” by Mahani Dickson Christmas is coming soon In December, six months away from June Candy canes are being piled into shoes And the air smells of delicious foods.
Read MoreMany years ago, a young woman from my family’s circle of friends was pregnant. Ann Marie was 18 or 19, and unmarried. It was not her first pregnancy: word was that she’d had one, maybe two abortions. She…
Read MoreIn 1969, Peggy Lee immortalized the rather depressing musical question, “Is That All There Is?” The song tells of a little girl watching her family’s house burn down, the disappointment of her first circus, the disillusionment of her first love.
Read MoreHoliday lights, sights, sounds, smells, songs, and stuff: it’s all intended to cheer us up, and it works, for the most part, for most people. For some who suffer, however, the holiday cheerleading is not helpful. It can…
Read MoreI’m on my 66th Advent. Isn’t Jesus here yet? A more pertinent question may be, “Are we there yet?” After 66 years, shouldn’t my spiritual life be richer? Shouldn’t I have a more stable emotional life? Shouldn’t that addiction or…
Read MoreAn article titled, “Jesus Was a Wimp,” discusses something called “Macho Christianity.” The article describes the trend as “a movement started by men who say traditional church services are just too feminine and sissy.” One follower says that…
Read MoreBy the time this gospel was written, the destruction of the Temple predicted by Jesus had already occurred. So had the earthquakes, famines, and plagues. As the bumper sticker says, calamity happens—in every age, in every life. I hate to…
Read MoreSince its founding in 1898 with three classrooms, Ascension Catholic School has been the heartbeat of this block. Today’s Ascension Catholic Academy, founded in 2016, our thriving four-school consortium, emerged out of 118 years of generous women and…
Read MoreA few years ago, the parents on the animated sitcom South Park blamed Canada for their children’s degenerate behavior after the kids—with parental permission, of course—had watched a Canadian film of questionable taste. They sang, We…
Read MoreA friend of mine was in Rome last week and I asked a favor of him as I often do of those visiting Rome: to pray for me at the tombs of a certain few saints whom I regard as…
Read MoreAlthough nuanced, we’re asked today to compare God to a stubborn and dishonest judge to demonstrate how badgering God with requests ultimately pays off. It’s not a helpful exercise for me. If things were so, cancer would be cured, we’d…
Read MoreOn the day before Mother’s Day in 2003, my mom was dying, the blood vessels around her heart and brain inflamed. We celebrated the Anointing of the Sick. After anointing her forehead, I rubbed the oil into her dishpan hands.
Read MoreOn Wednesday, the Church celebrated a feast of Mary under her title of “Untier” or “Undoer of Knots.” As Pope Francis explains, Even the most tangled knots are loosened by God’s grace. And Mary, whose “yes” opened the…
Read MoreLong before their more recent despicable tactics to depersonalize immigrants to this country, some politicians insisted on the term “illegal aliens” to describe the immigrant poor, a label that suggests creatures from another planet. But suppose we Christians substitute the…
Read MoreIn a world where capital is king, solidarity with those who are poor and with significant needs is profoundly countercultural. The dominant voices that surround us urge us to upward mobility. But that voice is absent in the gospels. The…
Read MoreEmmy Kegler is the pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in northeast Minneapolis. A couple of years ago, she published a book titled, One Coin Found. In the forward, a colleague said of her, What I love…
Read MoreAt the beginning of the baptismal rite for a small child, we ask the young, earnest parents, “Do you clearly understand what you’re undertaking?” And at a wedding, we ask, “Will you love and honor each other as…
Read MoreIn the late 1970s, Archbishop Óscar Romero was often accused by political and ecclesiastical authorities alike of being part of the left-wing Marxist opposition to the Salvadoran government, that he, like the guerillas, advocated the use of violence…
Read MoreA familiar story worth hearing again these days: Discerning the direction of his future ministry, a priest went to work at Mother Teresa’s home for the dying in Calcutta. When Mother greeted him, she asked, “What can I do…
Read MoreBeing a very late middle-aged celibate male, I am, of course, an expert in parenting. On my Target runs, I observe and judge (harshly) the interaction of parents with their…
Read MoreI admire those who excel at entertaining, who have a gift for hospitality. Most impressive are those who are unruffled with last minute guests, or who can throw something together at a moment’s notice or after a full workday. I…
Read MoreIt’s called the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Not the Parable of the Bad Robbers, or the Heartless Priest, or the Uncompassionate Levite. In Jesus’ time and place, with its brutal violence, intractable polarization, and ethnic bigotry, he calls out…
Read MoreWhen I was growing up, I regularly heard about the “Old Country”: Poland and Slovakia and other places from which my Eastern European relatives had emigrated. The Old Country sounded far away and long ago. It was all left behind…
Read MoreSt. Paul’s great “cry of the heart,” his “cri de couer” today is, “For freedom Christ set us free!” Paul declares freedom from the “yoke of slavery,” the Mosaic Law. Theologian James Alison likens the law to those baby walkers…
Read MoreEntering St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, your eye goes immediately to the main altar beneath the bronze canopy. Beyond that is the Altar of the Chair where on the back wall a chair belonging to St. Peter is…
Read MoreI am grateful for the gift of a good education. The other day, I counted the number of theology courses I’ve had in my life. They add up to exactly one million. Sadly, I only remember seven or…
Read MoreAfter she was sexually abused at the age of seven, the poet Maya Angelou was unable to speak for nearly ten years. Out of that devastation and silence, she rose to become a person of rare eloquence. What accounts for…
Read MoreWhere are you going?” “How long will you be gone?” “Who will take care of us?” Like kids watching Mom head out the door, the disciples look to Jesus as he leaves and wonder, “What will happen to us after…
Read MoreI saw a t-shirt recently. “I met God,” it said. “She’s black.” Why does that grab our attention? We know that God is neither male nor female, with no skin color: God has no skin. But, at the same time,…
Read MoreSome questions make me squirm, like, “How’s that diet going?” or “Are you saved?” Or, “Do you love me?” Jesus poses that awkward one to Peter not once, but three times—not because of insecurity on Jesus’ part, but to offer…
Read MoreThe novel, The Illumination, by Kevin Brockmeier, tells of a miraculous happening at 8:17 one Friday night, when life as we know it is altered by one degree: all human pain begins to manifest itself as light. From a shaving…
Read MoreOur Ascension School Fifth Graders presented a dramatic presentation of the Stations of the Cross on Thursday. One scholar, portraying a soldier, told me that he had to hold onto Jesus’ arm throughout the story. He said Jesus was a…
Read MoreCalvary,” a poem by Marie Howe: Someone hanging clothes on a line between buildings, someone shaking out a rug from an open window might have heard hammering, one or two blocks away and thought little or nothing…
Read MoreWhen I was growing up, my favorite spot in the living room every evening during TV time was next to my mother in her big aquamarine upholstered rocking chair. I’d snuggle in, her right arm around me, my head in…
Read MoreRichard Rohr writes, “Trust the down, and God will take care of the up.” We hear today in the letter to the Philippians an ancient Christian hymn that sings of Jesus’ descent from his high and mighty throne: being born…
Read MoreOn Thursday, members of Canada’s Assembly of First Nations gave Pope Francis a “cradleboard,” a traditional baby carrier, and asked him to keep it overnight as he reflected on what happened to Indigenous children who were sent to Catholic residential schools, especially…
Read MoreThe beginning of the film, The Child in Time, has Stephen Lewis, a young father (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), on a routine visit to the grocery store with his four-year-old daughter, Kate. Riding in the shopping cart, she urges him…
Read MoreSome of you may be too young to remember, but in the olden days, you didn’t automatically get R, S, T, L, N, and E in the “Wheel of Fortune” Bonus Round. You had to ask for them. And everyone…
Read MoreFor how many years of Ash Wednesdays have Catholics in Ukraine gone to church and had a cross of ashes imposed on their foreheads? How many Lenten pews did George Floyd or DeShaun Hill’s mother sit in and hear about…
Read MoreMy mother suffered the death of her first-born son, Georgie, when he was 13 months old. He died in a car accident while sitting on her lap. She grieved for the rest of her 50-some years. In 1948, there were…
Read MoreMy dog, Chucho, and I were at Ascension School on Wednesday to judge the Catholic Schools Week door decorating contest. At one point, a first grader in the hallway came over and petted Chucho, and then scampered back to his…
Read MoreWhen St. Paul penned his lyrical ode to love, he didn’t have starry-eyed brides and grooms in mind nor an impending Valentine’s Day. It was written for a very messy church community in Corinth, with their feuding, factions, and finger-pointing.
Read MoreThe ancient Greeks had a word for someone who was solitary and isolated:“idios”—suggesting that one who didn’t participate in community life, who tried to make it on their own, who didn’t contribute to the common good, was an “idiot.” Likewise,…
Read MoreWhat does Miss Manners instruct one to do if one were to run out of wine at one’s wedding? She doesn’t answer that question. She says it must simply never ever happen. So it was in Jesus’ time. Wine is…
Read MoreIn a New York Times opinion piece, Frank Bruni writes that “recrimination, rancor and indecency” characterize American life and discourse these days. Our communal spirit is close to broken. “We’re a mess,” he says. St. Óscar Romero asks, What…
Read MoreDr. Barbara Brown Taylor begins her sermon for the feast of the Epiphany saying, Once upon a time there are three—yes, three, very wise scholars of the natural sciences…They are sitting around in their own countries minding their own business when a bright…
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