I was given a review copy of Catholic Laity in the Mission of the Church: Living Out Your Lay Vocation by Russell Shaw. I looked at the cover: a blob of faceless people dressed the same, doing no-skill-no-brains heavy lifting,…
What’s the Role of the Laity?
The Eyes of Love
How can this blemished church be Christ’s Church? How can this mountain of sinners be the city on a hill? The Catholic Church has many critics today. They often point to scars from the past and to wounds still healing…
Spiritual Cross Training
If you’re looking for a new way to pray, Catholic spirituality is simply brimming [overflowing!] with set prayers, specific patterns for prayer, and more. There’s the Liturgy of the Hours, the first century practice of praying the Our Father three…
The Great Deception
Readings for March 9, 2014: First Sunday of Lent As I crossed the great divide of puberty, I formed a vivid image of God.. He was a grumpy old man on a throne with a frown on his face. Every…
Why the Bible At All?
I’ve had two very different people this week tell me that they don’t believe the Christian faith because the Bible is “written by the hands of men.” Think about what that statement says. If you don’t believe in something merely…
Journeying with Verbum, Scripture, and Community This Lent
One of the Lenten devotions I’m most excited about this year is my participation in Verbum’s terrific (and free!) Lenten Journey. First, for those of you who may not already know Verbum, here is an overview of their services: Verbum…
Resolution in the Abstract
I am not qualified to write this article. I will freely admit that up front, lest anyone accuse me of presenting a better picture of myself than what is found in reality. But truth is truth and the truth is…
The Grateful-for-Adversity Grandmother
Have you ever been grateful for something negative that happened to you? Well, maybe not while it’s happening. A friend of mine is a classic doting grandmother. Nothing fills her with joy more than a visit from her baby grandson,…
We Are the Sowers
Our parish has a middle school youth group called EDGE. It is a LifeTeen program that eight other adults join me in running. We meet every Monday evening to share the faith with about 70 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders. It’s…
God and Money
Readings for March 2, 2014: Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time In the ancient world, most peoples believed in a universe populated by many gods. However, even without the help of biblical revelation, Greek philosophers figured something out. There could only…