Read & Reflect
Articles, reflections, news, and homilies — thoughtful Catholic content for the faithful, published regularly.
Spirituality
Spirituality
The Hidden Life of Jesus Is the Overlooked Life
I’ll never forget when I once told a relative about a group of cloistered nuns—the Poor Clares—in Cleveland, Ohio, who spend their entire lives adoring Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. That relative thought it was a wasted life. Surely, they could be doing something better with their time, this...
Spirituality
“A Pathway Toward Healing and Hope”: Praying with the Beloved Apostle
Back in January, I was invited to lead a day-long workshop for Catholic school leaders in the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon. The topic that I was asked to address was “Catholic education as a healing ministry of the Church.” It is an important topic, and one that I have experienced, researched, wr...
Spirituality
Feel Good Religion Won’t Save You—The Cross Will
Have you ever been duped? Fooled, tricked, deceived, conned, swindled? “You duped me O Lord!” That was Jeremiah’s complaint. Somewhere along the line, he must have gotten the idea in his head that the life of a prophet would win him friends, success, and honors. Instead, it won him derision and mock...
Spirituality
Why Beauty is Bringing Young Catholics Home
Modernity has trained us to use our senses for consumption rather than contemplation. Instead of engaging our senses to pull the beauty and meaning out of our lives, we increasingly use them as a means to score a momentary dopamine hit. When we do this, we are not only not using our senses in the ma...
Spirituality
‘Tu es Petrus’: The Papacy as Instituted by Christ
Over the course of her two-thousand-year history, there have always been controversies and heresies within the Catholic Church. One of these is defiance and disobedience towards the papacy in the erroneous belief that one’s adherence to God exempts one from loyal obedience to Christ’s chosen Vicar o...
Spirituality
The Devil Never Takes a Day Off: On Speaking Well and How to Judge
Q&A WITH MYSTIC ALICJA LENCZEWSKA, PART 5 Continuing the theme of the fallen angels, I selected two long passages from the first volume of Alicja’s Journal, one from 1986 and the other from 1987. The abundance of words written during the mystical encounters may be surprising. It usually happens when...
Spirituality
When Priests Leave: Finding a Balance Between Mercy and Reverence
I have watched multiple priests leave the priesthood over the years, including the priest who baptized my godson. During the wake of 2018 and COVID, there were quite a few, which left many of us heartbroken. There is a balance that must be found when a priest leaves the priesthood. The Church allows...
Spirituality
Do We Have Ears to Hear Our Own Correction? 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Previously in this Gospel, Jesus has spoken about authority in His Church. This Sunday, He shows us how it works. Gospel (Read Mt. 18:15-20) This Sunday, Jesus teaches His disciples about life in the Church He intends to build. Earlier (Mt. 16), He established Peter as its head, giving him the “ke...
Spirituality
Finding Grace in Parental Failures
Some time ago, I ran into an old friend, and as we were catching up with each other’s lives, she said to me, “You’ve always been such a patient mom.” I had no idea what compelled her to make this claim, given that I had not seen her in years. Regardless, instead of boosting my ego, her words prompte...
Spirituality
Answering the Universal Call to Holiness with a Rule of Life
Over the past sixty years the documents of Vatican II, and indeed the council itself, have become emblematic of a sort of Catholic ideological divide. Opponents and proponents site problems and progress that don’t necessarily originate in the Council, which closed on the feast of the Immaculate Conc...
Spirituality
The Challenges of Love in the Modern and Postmodern World
When Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, he knew that the world he was asked to engage with was one of doubt, atheism, material acquisition, hate, violence, and war. Thus, he began his encyclical Deus Caritas Est with these words: In a world where the name of God is sometimes associat...
Spirituality
Encouragement to Read the Bible
There are times when people say, with varying degrees of facetiousness, that the difference between Catholics and Christian denominations is that Catholics don’t read the Bible. All too often, there is at least a grain of truth in that. I personally did not grow up reading the Bible. Indeed, it was...