January 23, 2021

Column: Listening Better to the Blues

Listen to B.B. King’s “Why I Sing the Blues.” This time, really listen: his soulful singing, Lucille’s crying. They belie the lyrics.
November 23, 2020

Column: COVID-19 and Character

“Tell me,” Albert Camus’ Clamence asks, “doesn’t shame sting a little?”
November 19, 2020

Column: Catholics and Presidents

What to make of a Catholic president?
October 31, 2020

Column: Fire and Brimstone: Tips for Preaching the End Times

Dwight Moody, the great revivalist, appreciated fire and brimstone. He knew nothing better, he said, than the notion “that Our Lord is coming again” to “take the men of this world out of their stocks and bonds.” As a preacher, he knew it worked, that it moved souls.
May 14, 2020

Column: What If We Lose Touch?

Making readers like me of George Orwell or Yevgeny Zamyatin highly uncomfortable, a San Diego company has developed a technology to monitor social distance. Already in use in some places, it’s called Active Distance Alert and Monitoring, or ADAM, eerily, for short. The technology maps signals emitted by phones, so that crowded areas like grocery stores […]
April 10, 2020

Column: The Poor are the Altar of God

The poor are the altar of God.
March 14, 2020

Homily: That Love that Loves the Worst

Just before his death, so the story goes, Saint Augustine excommunicated himself.
March 19, 2020

Humility, Faith, Light

The thing is, you see, he was born blind. That’s what set this miracle apart.
March 20, 2020

Homily: Our Pride and Blindness, Our Humility and Sight

It may make you feel better to know that even the great Saint Augustine thought this gospel reading a bit long.
March 26, 2020

Dead and Alive Like Lazarus, Christ, and You

Water. Light. And now life. It’s the progress of salvation and holiness. It’s how we’re to walk in Christ, if we’ll but see it and follow, if Lent has means to us what it should.
March 29, 2020

Homily: Thou Wilt Never Die

Gabriel Marcel, French playwright, theatre critic, and philosopher of whom I am fond: he said something once I’ve always believed to be true. He said, “To love…is to say thou wilt never die.”[1] Think about that.
February 20, 2021

Repentance is Spiritual Thirst

Saved by water and grace, that’s the recurring theme.