Yesterday was the Feast of Divine Mercy. It is a devotion of special significance to me. The Mercy of God has been the focal point of my spiritual life since it truly began. At the services yesterday, the priest preached…
Mercy is an Act of Faith
The Inconstant Soul
As we are in the midst of Holy Week there are many momentous things upon which we can reflect. Something that is striking me is the theme of inconsistency. We can constantly see throughout the Gospels that the disciples run…
Around the Year with Von Trapp Family
Around the Year with the Von Trapp Family by Maria Augusta Von Trapp is surprisingly upbeat and joyful, especially when we recall that in The Sound of Music ends with the Von Trapp troupe fleeing their beloved Austria. The 1965…
Scared Tradition and Traditions
Do you hear the song, Tradition, from Fiddler on the Roof, when you think about tradition? I do! Tevya asks the question, “How do we keep our balance?” and then says, “I can tell you in one word, tradition!” I…
Lent: Spiritual Boot Camp
This Wednesday we are going to being the holy season of Lent. I often equate Lent to spiritual boot camp. I love the Rocky movies. They have provided me with years of continual uplift and entertainment. These movies are almost…
Courage and Conviction
“I have loved justice and hated iniquity. Therefore, I die in exile.” These were some of the last recorded words of Pope St. Gregory VII. He was one of the great reformer popes you stood up to the corruption that…
Loving Your Enemies in the Internet Age
“Love your enemies,” is one of the most shocking and important moral precepts that Christ gave us. It is the complete inversion of all of our fallen instincts of revenge and even our natural instincts of justice. But Jesus calls…
It Really Is a Wonderful Life
Life is hard. I don’t think anyone who has had to face the trials and tragedies of adult life could argue with this point. And there are times when we feel so completely crushed by the world where every day…
Physical minimalism, spiritual excess
Almost a year ago, I wrote about Seasons of Change and how, in the Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis tells us that “(t)he horror of the Same Old Thing is one of the most valuable possessions we have produced in the…
Faith in Receiving the Word
God asked faith of Abraham and Isaac. He asked it of St. John of the Cross, of Mother Theresa, and others. Sometimes their extreme examples seem just that — extreme. They seem to be on the edges of what’s possible,…