Why don’t they offer sacrifices in the Parthenon anymore?: On Pagan and Christians Ideals of Beauty and Grandeur

Last updated on: August 6, 2018 at 1:30 am By Stephen G. Adubato

This is the second article in a series entitled “My Mediterranean Adventures” I approached my third trip up to the Acropolis with a cynical boredom. As much as I appreciate “cultural visits” to artistic and architectural establishments, the ruins of Classical Greece and Rome never really did anything for me. My first trip there fourteen years ago was filled with a naive, instinctual excitement…I posed in front of the Parthenon emulating some generic ancient athlete, enthusiastically showing my friends the photos... Read more

The Secular vs The Sacramental: My Mediterranean Adventures

Last updated on: July 26, 2018 at 10:33 am By Stephen G. Adubato

I spent the last 4 weeks gallivanting about the Mediterranean and England. Mediterranean blood flows through my veins, so I had been longing for the opportunity to return to my roots after 5 years away from my Motherland. My passions for flavorful food, lively music, coffee culture, warm breezes, aesthetic beauty, and abundant leisure time often clash with the norms of the east coast American lifestyle that I’ve had no choice but to become accustomed to. The exhausting 9-5 work... Read more

Finding Stability in a Liquid Society: Monks in Newark, York, and Beyond

Last updated on: July 5, 2018 at 8:09 am By Stephen G. Adubato

When most people today think of a monastery, they envision a romantic, bordering on ethereal scene of hooded hermits floating around a dimly lit corridor toward a stoney church, preparing to chant eerily beautiful hymns to a hidden deity resting somewhere in the clouds. But the Middle Ages have passed, and real life monks have had adapt their centuries old traditions to the context of contemporary society. The landscape of postmodern geography make this work of aggiornamento a taxing task... Read more

City Summers: A Gift and a Curse

Last updated on: June 11, 2018 at 8:05 pm By Stephen G. Adubato

The hot summer months may be one of the least convenient times of year to be in the “capital of the world.” A city usually known for its glamour, culture, and iconic status, Manhattan becomes a chamber of exhaustion that sways between the poles of sweltering humidity amidst the bustle of the streets, and the environment degrading arctic blasts of the air conditioners on the city subways. A few times in and out of a subway during one of these... Read more

Unity at the Crossroads: a Good Friday Reflection

Last updated on: April 6, 2018 at 12:42 pm By Stephen G. Adubato

Originally published at Traces Online On Good Friday, Christians across the world commemorate Jesus’ journey carrying the Cross through the streets of Jerusalem by engaging in public “Way of the Cross” spectacles. The spectacles we put on in New York City, in my own humble opinion, are exceptional. We New Yorkers have an acute sense of what it means to be a people “on the way.” We are always in transit, whether it be to work, to see someone we... Read more

God on Trial: The Demand for Meaning in Tragedies

Last updated on: March 7, 2018 at 5:04 am By Stephen G. Adubato

This post is in memory of one of my former students who died in a car crash last weekend. To have faith is to be free, whereas freedom is the need for total satisfaction, for a total answer or meaning. Because of this, you can see that a person who doesn’t seek anything, that says “no,” that resists faith, lives a life full of meaninglessness, of negativity. This attitude is a premature death (as the medieval fathers called sin: premature... Read more

“Shi*ty are the Poor”

Last updated on: January 31, 2018 at 2:34 am By Stephen G. Adubato

Every other month I lead a group of high school students down to a local train station to bring food to the homeless. I remind the students that we don’t go on Jesus Runs (as we affectionately call them) to do a good deed and “feel good about ourselves.” “Giving a homeless guy a sandwich is not going to make much of a difference in his life,” I interject. “‘OMG! My life is so much better now that I have... Read more

Father Abraham: Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim Perspectives

Last updated on: January 25, 2018 at 5:11 am By Stephen G. Adubato

(L-R) Professor of Law Joseph Weiler, moderator John McCarthy, dean of the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America, apostolic nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, and Sayyid Mohammad Baqir al-Kashmiri, chairman of Imam Mahdi Marjaeya Association, partake in a dialogue on the role of Abraham in abrahamic religions. Photo by Nick Erickson The New York Encounter is an annual three-day public cultural event in the heart of New York City. Run by members of the lay... Read more

MLK’s Dream Brought to Life at the New York Encounter

Last updated on: January 25, 2018 at 3:57 am By Stephen G. Adubato

Pianist Andrea Domenici (left) and guitarist Philip Faconti (right) accompany Grammy-nominated Jonathan Hoard in gospel hymn commemorating the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Photo by Mary Sarah Ivers The New York Encounter is an annual three-day public cultural event in the heart of New York City. Run by members of the lay movement Communion and Liberation, the Encounter strives to witness to the new life and knowledge generated by the faith, following Pope Benedict’s claim that “the intelligence... Read more

Mark Lilla: “We are going to share a destiny, whether we like it or not”

Last updated on: January 22, 2018 at 3:34 pm By Guest Contributor

By Guest Contributor, Elena Neuzil The New York Encounter is an annual three-day public cultural event in the heart of New York City. Run by members of the lay movement Communion and Liberation, the Encounter strives to witness to the new life and knowledge generated by the faith, following Pope Benedict’s claim that “the intelligence of faith has to become the intelligence of reality.” This year’s theme, “An ‘Impossible’ Unity”, proposed that “[t]he full scope of our humanity, with all its... Read more