bible
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Since Memorial Day, patriotism has been on my mind. I am old enough to remember the American Bicentennial. I was seven, and I remember TV specials, local parades, and especially a traveling exhibit on America’s first 200 years that criss-crossed the country by Amtrak. I think I saw it a couple of different times, but…
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I am headed on retreat and off the grid for a couple of weeks starting tomorrow, but I couldn’t let a pope release a social encyclical without at least a quick skim before I left, and Pope Leo released Magnifica Humanitas this morning. So here I am. I haven’t read any of the commentary already…
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If reports are true, Pope Leo XIV will release his first encyclical on May 15th, titled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent humanity). Since this is unrelated to my day job, I will almost certainly not be among the first to read and report on this, so I wanted to try to flag a few things in advance…
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The readings through the octave of Easter (the eight days from Easter Sunday through the following Sunday), include the different sightings of the resurrected Jesus as their Gospels. Since that means pulling from four different sources, they jump around a little chronologically, and they feel more like a collection of snapshots captured by different photographers…
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There’s no place like home. This passage from Isaiah (65:17-21), which is the Old Testament reading for mass today (March 16, 2026), is meant to be a promise of hope. The image it presents – an entirely new reality, in which the past tears are wiped away and only joy exists, where no child dies…
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They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. -Psalm 106:37 When I can, I try to sneak off to daily Mass during my lunch break. Unlike the liturgy on Sundays, these are quiet, simple and quick: it’s usually at most a few dozen people in a mostly empty church, with no music (unless your…
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I seem to have taught the Facebook algorithm that I like t-shirts with faith-based slogans (which is fine by me). One popular one says “Be salty; Stay lit”, cheekily translating Matthew 5:13-14, in which Jesus tells his disciples that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, as part of…
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“Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.” One of the things I like to do early in the week is read through the Scripture passages that will be used that week at Mass. Catholics have a set (2-year) cycle of passages for each weekday mass, and a separate (3-year) cycle for Sundays. A lot…
Reading Francis 