While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he grew exasperated at the sight of the city full of idols. So he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and with the worshipers, and daily in the public square with whoever happened to be there. (Acts 17:16-17) Yesterday the online religion site Patheos debuted a new look. It’s streamlined, consistent, and accessible, and what’s more important, making the transition didn’t appear to overly fry the brains or exhaust the tech... Read more

Jesus said, “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished . . .” ~ The Gospel of Thomas (Coptic), Logion 2 On the Sunday after Easter, we meet Thomas–one of the most intriguing of the Apostles. Oh sure, the familiar Gospel reading from John makes him a kind of dolt, a believer-come-lately who somehow manages to miss the first appearance of the Risen Christ... Read more

Some days, my revertigo is beyond dizzying. On this Easter Monday I am suffering from a kind of religious withdrawal. Having the disciplines and ceremonies of Lent, Holy Week, and the Triduum to steer me into the second year of my reversion has been terrific. I was able especially, in this last week, to submerge myself completely in the depths of the Paschal Mystery, being part of the beautifully and reverently celebrated liturgies at my parish. But today, getting back... Read more

“He descended into hell.” I have my quibbles with a lot of the latest translation of the Roman Missal–especially, at the Vigil, the messing about with the texts for the baptismal rites that Deacon Greg Kandra points out–but I am delighted that the language of the Apostles’ Creed has returned to the old phrasing. It’s a reminder that in those hours between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, when all creation waited in hushed stillness, Jesus himself wasn’t just waiting, just... Read more

I wasn’t going to post again today, but then I read the meditations on the Stations of the Cross used by the Pope today at the traditional Good Friday prayer at the Colosseum. Each year, a different writer or team of writers is commissioned to compose these meditations. This year, for the first time, the meditations were penned by a married couple, Danilo and Anna Maria Zanzucchi, founders of Focolare’s New Families Movement. It’s hard to put into words what... Read more

“It’s a good Friday, for lots of reasons!” Ann Curry chirped on the TODAY Show this morning. The reasons? An exclusive interview with the British woman who’s getting international guff for complaining about how tough life is when you’re beautiful. Another exclusive with Kim Kardashian, who also chirps as she explains how cuddling with Kanye West at The Hunger Games helps her mourn the ending of her 72-day marriage. A visit from the host of a TV fishing show. (Well,... Read more

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, ché la diritta via era smarrita. Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte che nel pensier rinova la paura! In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself astray in a dark wood where the straight road had been lost sight of, in the thick of thickets, in a wood so dense and gnarled the... Read more

Last night I sat with my friends on their front porch, enjoying the summery twilight warmth and the explosion of azalea and dogwood blossoms, and passing around copies of the Dayton City Paper‘s unexpectedly unsnarky and informative cover interview with Archbishop Dennis Schnurr. My friends asked me what I thought of the news that Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, had overruled the decision of a pastor to deny an elected position on the parish council to a man living... Read more

Palm Sunday, if you take it seriously, can really blow you away. The swoop from the high of Hosanna to the silence of Calvary is akin to those thrill rides that pull your stomach out through your nose. I’m not much for those anyway, unless I’m trying to convince my son I’m not a wuss, but the sensation is especially disconcerting when it happens at church. In the trad-heaven days of my liturgically unreformed youth, the vertigo got spread over... Read more

True love could have been a contender Are you there? Say a prayer For the pretender Who started out so young and strong Only to surrender ~ Jackson Browne, “The Pretender” I guess it was inevitable. Today and tomorrow, people from all over the country are converging on New York’s Metropolitan Pavilion for the first-ever divorce expo. Designed to resemble bridal expos–the open-parentheses to which it’s the close-parentheses–Start Over Smart: A Modern Divorce Expo features informational sessions on everything from... Read more