I thought this was clever and helped give a picture of the global church represented in the college of Cardinals… although I’m not sure they quite understand how this conclave thing works. Read more

I thought this lecture by Fr. Augustine Thompson, OP at DSPT was very interesting, and was glad that it was made available online. I had to pass it on to you all. Here is a little synopsis: Fr. Augustine Thompson, OP examines new discoveries about the liturgical and social significance of baptism in the cities of thirteenth century Italy. These developments will be compared with the development of the theology of baptism from the twelfth century to Thomas Aquinas in the late thirteenth.... Read more

John Cavadini offered some of his own thoughts on the historical situation the Catholic Church finds it self in with the abdication of the papacy by Benedict XVI as well as his own reflections on the legacy of Benedict’s papacy in a recent youtube video. I thought the reflections were excellent! They offered many of my own thoughts on the issues and presented a thoughtful reflection on the future. I think it would be worth your while to check it out. I have included... Read more

This week  the other doctoral students on the Crossed Purposes podcast and I talk about proclaiming the word. What is the role of the Gospel in the life of the average Christian? What does it mean to preach the Gospel? How might you define the Gospel? Take a listen and let us know what you think! If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element Download it here Read more

Holy father, may God bless you with every heavenly blessing and give you a safe journey; wherever life leads you, may you may find him there to protect you Lead us all, O Lord, so that we will reach our destination in safety. Read more

As I’ve learned to study liturgy, I have become aware that much of what can be learned about what people believed and how they prayed is not listed in the prayers and rubrics themselves, but in many ways is reflected in how people prayed when people prayed what kinds of things were added and what kinds of things were taken away. Liturgies are in many ways like a body. The hard “bones” are connected by “soft tissue.” The tissue is... Read more

One of the things that you are asked to do when you come into full communion with the Catholic Church is to take the name of one of the recognized saints of the church. As someone who has trouble deciding what shirt to wear in the morning this is something of a challenge since there are over 10,000 named saints in the Catholic church, how can you choose just one. I considered a lot of them. I wanted to make... Read more

In preparation for an upcoming poetry event here at CUA I read through some of the poetry of David Bottoms. I was struck by the one of the poems in particular. It speaks of a father teaching his son to bunt and operates in the poem as something of a metaphor for the sacrificial nature of parenting. A bunt is a strategy employed in which the batter sacrifices himself in order to advance another runner to the next base. There is no glory in a bunt, no fame, no coverage on sports center. It... Read more

My friend and fellow podcaster on Crossed Purposes, Josh Wise, just posted an great article on how the Harlem Shake is a powerful parable that can be used to point to the kingdom of God. (If you don’t know what the Harlem Shake is get educated, my personal favorite example is here.) He writes: The world, going about its business, looks rather normal. All of a sudden there is a man saying and doing something new that stands out from everything else. And then... Read more

…so in honor of Spring training I give you this: As listeners of my podcast know I am an avid Tigers fan and think Baseball can teach us a great deal about life and God. I’m excited to embark on another wonderful season of my favorite sport. Thanks to Joseph Susanka for sending this to me. Read more