Fr. Robert Spitzer seems to embody it here in an interview with my friend Tom Hoopes: OSV: …When did you realize you were called? Father Spitzer: It happened on a strange day on my way to work. I really liked my work. I was well paid and I was working for an accountant. But I was going to work this day and I was asking myself, “Why am I doing this?” I was about halfway there, halfway between Gonzaga and... Read more
Cold. Rain. Snow. Slippery steps and walkways. That’s my Jerusalem experience. And so it’s no surprise that I’m coughing, congested, and tired after walking the Via Dolorosa in the early morning in that. But there was no blood. No heavy cross. No scourging for me! Just annoyances. Just inconveniences. What a blessing a cough is. Just the smallest reminder. Just the smallest cross. Just the smallest nudge to gratitude. To be reminded that even the heaviest crosses don’t really compare... Read more
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Read more
Always a Manhattanite, I took a cab up to Mount Tabor. Read more
It’s hard not to welcome this past Sunday’s gospel. It’s a source of strength even today, as it was meant to be for the Apostles who witnessed the Transfiguration of Christ. Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with... Read more
Preliminary thoughts from the Holy Land. Read more
As I alluded to, I’ve been in the Holy Land. I hope to share aspects of the trip here throughout Lent. John Paul II Pope Benedict XVI said in May 2009 upon arrival at the Tel Aviv airport: Christian communities in the Holy Land, I say: by your faithful witness to him who preached forgiveness and reconciliation, by your commitment to uphold the sacredness of every human life, you can make a particular contribution to ending the hostilities that for so... Read more
It was a ten-hour flight from Newark to Tel Aviv and the highlight — besides the beautiful, totally in love after decades of marriage, Portuguese couple sitting next to me — was the Jewish men standing, praying, with their prayer shawls and phylacteries. “I took out my Magnificat,” passenger after passenger told me after landing for our pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While we ought not stand on street corners praying, as if to look for credit for our prayer,... Read more
I had dinner Thursday night in Bethlehem across the street from that awful wall dividing Bethlehem and Jerusalem, so direly reminiscent of Germany’s past. So Gregory of Nyssa’s medidation in the Magnificat for the first of March took on some added significance. “Recognizing Christ as ‘peace,’ we shall exhibit the true title of Christian in ourselves through the peace in our life,” the Father of the Church explains. He goes on: For the One “has slain enmity,” as the apostle... Read more
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Read more
Kathryn Lopez
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