Spirituality

Have you ever noticed how the Ascension is celebrated during a time when many cross graduation stages and enter new stages of life? There is much to learn from these seemingly unrelated yet coinciding events. Against the context of graduations and new beginnings, the Ascension of the Lord imparts a...

Almost five years ago, on a beautiful, warm summer evening, while watching our daughter play soccer, my husband turned to share some life-changing news with me. I remember it clear as day. He told me: “I’ve been quietly discerning the diaconate for the past 9 months.” It was not something I ever exp...

St. Teresa of Avila used to carry a small piece of paper in her breviary that listed the 33 saints (or categories of saints, e.g. angels, patriarchs, martyrs, or saints of the Carmelite Order) to whom she was chiefly devoted (Apuntaciones, 8). At the top of the list was St. Joseph, which is not surp...

In his first encyclical, Pope Benedict XVI looked over the course of his life, beginning before World War II, throughout which he witnessed firsthand the propensity of human beings to hate, interspersed with episodes of what the world called “love.” Love, he reflected, “has become one of the most fr...

The early Church faced the problem of the unjust distribution of food among her members, as we learn in Acts 6: “The Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.” The Twelve addressed this issue immediately so that it would not distra...

I can only imagine the anguish devout Catholic parents must feel when their child, be they adolescent or adult, moves away from God. They stand sadly by, hoping and praying that their offspring will return to the loving embrace of their heavenly Father. Hope and prayer, the mainstay of our Christian...

We Catholics have a lot of sets of spiritual things. The 10 CommandmentsThe 3 Theological VirtuesThe 4 Cardinal VirtuesThe 8 Beatitudes(Hope you’re studying—there’s a quiz at the end.)The 7 Gifts of the Holy SpiritThe 12 Fruits of the Holy SpiritThe 7 Corporal Works of MercyThe 7 Spiritual Works of...

Imagine walking into the office on your first day of a new job and seeing a heated argument between a group of people who are not only in positions of authority but also the primary actors in ensuring that the business flourishes. Naturally, your first inclination might be to pick up the want ads as...

Early in my clinical training, one of my first patients told me something I have never forgotten: “my family is cursed—and so am I.” He described a history marked by abuse, addiction, and abandonment. Patterns that had repeated across generations. “It will always be like this,” he said, and so a lif...

Nothing says jazz like New Orleans, and nothing says Catholic like the Mass. So, a jazz Mass on Good Shepherd Sunday in New Orleans at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and International St. Jude Shrine was a blessing on many levels. I had traveled from North Dakota with a son and his family. All That Ja...

A few months back I wrote a piece called “Influencers vs. Saints.” The whole point was simple. Teaching the Faith is not a hobby for the spiritually unformed. We are in a weird stretch of Church history where anyone with a smartphone can position themselves as an authority or teacher on the Catholic...

I passed through the metal detector at the Las Vegas Airport without incident.  No alarm complained about my passage.  While waiting for my wife, who was the inconvenient recipient of a more thorough random check, I turned to the attendant and told her that I was surprised to pass through the metal...