Spirituality

There is a Face behind the silence of the Eucharist; a Face behind the veil of suffering; a Face behind the hiddenness of love.  Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once said, “The world’s greatest need is to rediscover the true image of Christ’s Face—a Face of mercy, not judgment; of tenderness, not wrath.”...

Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life. So wrote Isaiah about heeding and eating. The psalmist echoed Isaiah: The hand of the Lord feeds us;he answers all our needs.The eyes of all look hopefully to you,and you give them...

A Ship, a Writer, and a Crossing One of the most insightful films I have seen recently is not overtly religious, political, or philosophical. In fact, very little seems to happen in it at all. Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk follows Alice Hughes, a celebrated novelist traveling across the Atla...

The month of August offers Catholics a remarkable opportunity to reflect on the lives of saints whose love for the Holy Eucharist transformed not only their own souls but the life of the Church. Though they lived in different centuries, served in different vocations, and faced different challenges,...

This Sunday, Jesus has pity on a vast, hungry crowd; the miracle He performs has profound Eucharistic meaning. Gospel (Read Mt. 14:13-21) Our reading begins with a description of Jesus’ response to the news of the death of John the Baptist:  “He withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by Himself.”  S...

In times of insanity, only the relatively insane have the courage to be sane. In this paradox lies the paradox of salvation itself: that the seemingly mad are the ones to save the world from madness. St. Ignatius of Loyola was a knight errant for Our Lady who charged the giant windmills of his lifet...

Organ donation is often presented as a question of generosity. A person dies, another person needs an organ, and the gift of donation seems to allow life to continue. In many cases, that is true. One thinks, for example, of the moving case of Jeni Stepien, whose father’s donated heart was received b...

In recent months there has been more Catholic writers and social media types in the laity and priesthood complaining about the rise of online exorcists. Some of the complaints are valid. There is a prudence that should be exercised by any member of the clergy—or anyone for that matter—who rises to a...

By now you’ve probably received your fair share of emails and savings offers on a variety of items—including Christmas decorations! These “Christmas in July” sales are now as common as the Back-to-School push, which seems to occur the moment we settle into summer. We barely get to enjoy that special...

When you consider the large part they play in God’s great work, angels might be the most overlooked aspect of our spiritual life. Beyond their work throughout Scripture, many saints have also written beautifully about angels and their mission. Still, in modern life, angels often get relegated to art...

Even while on earth, Jesus’ apostolic mission appeared to bear much fruit, evident in the large crowd that followed Him: “Such large crowds gathered around Him (Jesus) that He got into a boat and sat down.” But Jesus does not seem impressed by the size of the crowd. He goes on to tell them a parable...

Blaise Pascal was one of the most remarkable minds of the seventeenth century. A mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and writer, he devoted his life to exploring both the mysteries of nature and the deepest questions of human existence. Born in Clermont-Ferrand, France, in 1623, Pascal displayed...