Read & Reflect
Articles, reflections, news, and homilies — thoughtful Catholic content for the faithful, published regularly.
Spirituality
Spirituality
There is Always Hope: Faith Rooted in Childhood Will Prevail
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...
Spirituality
The Other 7 Deadly Extremes
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...
Spirituality
Unity Without Compromise: Why Ecumenism Needs Catholic Clarity Now More than Ever
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...
Spirituality
Are We Bound by the Past? Generational Curses, Trauma, and the Freedom to Change
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...
Spirituality
Mass, Jazz, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and St. Jude
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...
Spirituality
The Neeza Powers Story and the Catholic Internet’s Fame Problem
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...
Spirituality
Marriage Is Not a Metaphor
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...
Spirituality
The School of Love
We’re all here to learn how to love. Life is a school of love. The things that happen to you in life are meant to help you learn how to love. The people who cross your path in life are meant to help you learn how to love, and you’re meant to help them learn how to love, too. We’re all on a journey b...
Spirituality
Cooperation with Evil: Why the Distinctions Matter
The Servant and the Ladder Consider the old moral case condemned by Blessed Innocent XI (1676–1689). A servant helps his master climb through a window to commit a grave sexual crime, perhaps by holding the ladder, opening the door, or otherwise assisting him. Could the servant excuse himself by sayi...
Spirituality
God’s Ways Are So Much Higher
I sat next to my teenage daughter on a rainy afternoon in the Chick-fil-a drive-through, talking to her about the struggle and need to conform our will to God’s. I started with the theological explanations in a general way and then applied them to our own lives. Words then came out of my mouth that...
Spirituality
The Church as Our Consoling Mother
Amid a world ripe with uncertainty, fear, and sorrow, the Catholic Church stands as a loving and consoling mother, guiding her children toward the eternal embrace of Jesus Christ in heaven. The Catholic Church describes herself as a she. She is not merely an institution or an assembly of believers—s...
Spirituality
The Promise That Makes Christianity Unique: Sixth Sunday of Easter
This Sunday’s readings deepen our understanding of the mystery of Easter: Christ rose from the dead to live His life again in us. Gospel (Read Jn. 14:15-21) Here we continue in Jesus’ Last Supper Discourse with the Twelve. He is speaking forthrightly to His friends about an imminent change in thei...