faith

  • Take Three

    Take Three

    Do you trust me? I don’t know if you ever have this experience, but I have found that some themes, questions, and challenges keep coming back to me, generally because I haven’t satisfactorily addressed them before. How many times have we committed to getting to Mass early, or at least on time? How many times

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  • Be like Paul?

    Be like Paul?

    Be like … Paul? Even though Paul was my father’s name, my middle name, my confirmation name, and the author of half the New Testament books, he’s not one of my favorite saints. He was crazy smart and went non-stop, but it’s hard to read his letters without thinking he was also really high drama.

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  • Trinity Sunday

    So what? Last Sunday was the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity for Catholics – basically there’s a lineup of deep-topic feast days on Sundays from Ascension to Pentecost to Trinity Sunday to Corpus Christi that celebrate different important but hard to grasp theological concepts. If you are the type that thinks that faith is

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  • Papal Meme Police

    I never intended to become the Papal Meme Police. I blame Esteban for turning me into an internet Javert. It started after the death of Pope Francis, when my social media feed was filled with friends posting the heartwarming yet completely false story of Esteban, the alleged dog who refused to leave the side of

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  • Listening Sheep

    Listening Sheep

    “My sheep hear my voice.” – John 10:27 I wanted to return to something Pope Leo XIV said to the College of Cardinals in his meeting with them on the day after his election. In what seems to be his first draft of a program for his papacy, Leo underscored his commitment to build on

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  • Better Him Than Me

    Better him than me. Before I dig into something Pope Leo XIV said to the College of Cardinals over the weekend in another post, I just wanted to take a moment of gratitude that I don’t have his job. Today he had a meeting with some of the 6,000 accredited media who have been covering

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  • Millstones

    Millstones

    I’m glad I’m not a Catholic bishop in the US. In the Gospels, Jesus saves his harshest words for religious leaders that lead their followers astray. I think especially of Matthew 18, where, after saying that his followers should humble themselves like a little child, he says, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who

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  • Be Not Surprised

    Though an unexpected choice, the new pope quickly won the hearts, not only of the faithful, but of others around the world with his humility, humor and ability to express an authentic connection with common, everyday people. He was a tireless advocate for peace who interceded with world leaders to try to end global conflicts.

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  • A Saint and a Pope

    A Saint and a Pope

    Last summer, I went on retreat in Assisi with an outline I called “Francis x Francis”, and I don’t think I ever got around to sharing it here. The bottom line, though, is that I think you can find a lot of similarities between the life and teaching of Pope Francis and those of the

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