What would it look like if we lived like we are children of God? Wouldn’t everything look different? Our culture, relationships, even our politics? Each week, I do at least one interview about my latest novel, Plausible Liars. There is a commonality among the interviewers’ questions about the unusual title: my explanation of its origin […]
What would it look like if? Read More »
Quo Vadis America? “Our nation is too full of those that are crying Down…Down with schools. Down with the churches. Down with teachers. Down with government. Down with the police. Can you build anything down? You cannot!” Archbishop Fulton Sheen exclaimed to his TV audiences about America during his popular TV show in the mid-1960s. He honed in
Quo Vadis America: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolution or St-Just? Read More »
Happiness: Feeling or decision? “So, how exactly, do you decide to be happy?” My friend looked bemusedly at me as she replied to my statement that I thought happiness was a decision we made. “LOOK at that tree!” I exclaimed loudly and with vehemence, knowing that my reply to her question required more than a
Happiness: Feeling or Decision? Read More »
Religion begins with experience Religion does not start out with the notion of God. It starts with a personal experience, the overwhelming experience of ultimate belonging. Religion of the Heart Two pictures side by side in one frame hang on the wall of our Texas home. They reveal two views of a snowy cross-country skiing mountain
Revealed to the Childlike: Religion Begins with Experience Read More »
Anamnesis Four-or more-syllable words are intimidating, like this one: anamnesis. But to lovers of words, this one means far more than remembering, recalling to mind. Or a psychological term indicating a return of lost memories. Wordsworth’s poem, Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, describes anamnesis without ever mentioning the word. Because it
Anamnesis: Perils of Ignoring It Read More »
It is good for us to be here: Transfiguration The Transfiguration is the last miracle performed by Christ, marking the end of his days on earth. Peter, James and John are invited by Christ up to the peak of the mountain to pray. For weeks, he has warned his disciples that the Son of Man
It Is Good For Us To Be Here: The Transfiguration and Jonah Read More »
The empty sanctuary of ordinary time. The churches were glorious during this Christmas season. For more than twenty days, the poinsettias stayed vibrant, and outside Saint Matthew’s Church in San Antonio, the soaring tribute to the Triune God became, literally, a tower of light. Now, emptied of Christmas decorations, the empty sanctuaries are stark. The
The Empty Sanctuary of Ordinary Time: Thoughts and Thorns Read More »
Christmas Wake-Up Call: Stoning, Massacre and a Trump PS on Becket Wake-up call? Why do we need a Christmas wake-up call? Consider that for much of the world, Christmas starts right after Thanksgiving. Christmas music plays everywhere, shopping ads begin and the Christmas trees go up. Weeks later, when Christmas Day finally dawns, the excitement’s
Christmas Wake-Up Call: Stoning, Massacre and a Trump PS on Becket Read More »
The blood of the church: love Just as the human heart must have blood to maintain life, so must the church have love to live. The metaphors are not mine but Madeleine Debrel’s, Venerable Madeleine Debrel. The blood of the church: love. She was a poet, this French mystic who poured out her life for
The Blood of the Church: Love Read More »
The shaking reality of Advent Amidst the Hallmark Christmas movies, red bows, tinsel, parties, Christmas music and ubiquitous political clamor, lurks a presence. A whisper deep in our hearts, in our psyches and in our souls. The phrase “the shaking reality of Advent” is not mine, but belongs to Jesuit Priest and martyr, Alfred Delp.
The Shaking Reality of Advent Read More »