Read & Reflect
Articles, reflections, news, and homilies — thoughtful Catholic content for the faithful, published regularly.
Spirituality
Spirituality
St. Francis and the Love for All Creation
There is a reason why the Jesuit Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio, upon being elected pope, took the name of Francis of Assisi as his “guide and inspiration.” As his many writings inform us, Pope Francis consciously followed in the wake of his saintly namesake in many of his papacy’s aims. As he wr...
Spirituality
August and the Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
“Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, thy well-beloved spouse.” This short but powerful prayer comes from Servant of God, Fr. Stefano Gobbi whose love for our Blessed Mother influenced many thousands to pray the rosary and increase their own devotion to her. Praying this...
Spirituality
False Hope Is Not Trust
The prophet who prophesies peace is recognized as truly sent by the LORD only when his prophetic prediction is fulfilled. (Jer. 28:9) Once, in my younger days, I met a beautiful woman who was nearing the end of her childbearing years. She confided in me that, as a devout Christian, she had always tr...
Spirituality
Making Jesus Your Best Friend
Frequently when the two of us pass our church while doing errands, we stop in to spend a few minutes with Jesus. Often no one else is in the sanctuary except for us and Jesus in the Tabernacle. Our first words of prayer are “Jesus, we were in the neighborhood and just wanted to stop in to say hello”...
Spirituality
You’re Either For Christ Or Against Him
We were watching one of the live games of the recently concluded 2026 Soccer World Cup when I asked someone in the room which team he was cheering for. He said he did not support any of the teams and that he was just there to watch a good game. He was completely neutral. I nodded in tacit approval....
Spirituality
Fulton Sheen and the Faces We Choose
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.”...
Spirituality
The Venerable Hand That Feeds Us
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...
Spirituality
Not a Cruise, but a Crossing: What ‘Let Them All Talk’ Reveals About Friendship, Literature, and Eternity
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...
Spirituality
5 Saints Who Teach Us to Love the Eucharist This August
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,...
Spirituality
The Bread That Never Runs Out: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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...
Spirituality
St. Ignatius of Loyola: Madman or Militant Monk?
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...
Spirituality
Organ Donation Is a Gift, Not a Harvest: The Personal Body and the Ethics of Transplantation
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...