ST. STEPHEN’S SPRING Just returned from an afternoon stroll through Dublin’s St. Stephen’s Green. And … le printemps est arrive. St. Stephen’s is, in a word, green. And in bloom. Or about to be. On my stroll I recalled something my rabbi told me last winter: “What we know is that right now, underground, the sap is sapping already,” Rabbi Irwin Kula said. “Life is happening even though we’re not aware of it yet. Because in April, no matter what,... Read more

A DUBLIN EVENSONG This afternoon, my second to last in Ireland, I attended a Choral Evensong service at Dublin’s Church of Ireland cathedral, Christ Church. The church, first built in 1038 by Sitric Silkenbeard, the Viking king of Dublin, is the oldest in the city (though St. Patrick’s cathedral nearby is supposedly the oldest Christian site in all of Ireland, built on the site where St. Patrick is said to have baptized his first converts in the 5th century). The... Read more

TO HELL OR CONNAUGHT? I’LL TAKE CONNAUGHT … At least for a few days. Friday marked my last day in the Sun-Times newsroom. I sobbed all of Friday night and most of Saturday. Leaving that wacky place and its extraordinary denizens was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I’m off to write a couple of books (as you know) but before I do, am shipping myself off to the old sod for a week to contemplate the notion... Read more

“GOD, MY FRIENDS, IS WITH THE POOR AND GOD IS WITH US IF WE ARE WITH THEM.” We’ve heard Bono give a thousand speeches and this one, delivered last night at the NAACP Image Awards, is the most stirring, most inspiring to date. Surely yer man is a preacher, in the best sense of the word, filled with the Spirit, a vessel overflowing. Read more

GODSTUFF: WHAT’S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE? “Amazing Grace” may be the most recorded song of all time. Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, The Byrds, Jose Carreras, Willie Nelson and Ani DiFranco. Billy Ray Cyrus, Joan Baez, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the U.S. Air Force Reserve Pipe Band and David Hasselhoff. Ram Dass, Pat Boone, Jim Nabors and The Lemonheads. All have offered their interpretations of the famous hymn. In 1971, Judy Collins had a Top 10 hit with her version... Read more

BOOK NEWS: THE GOD FACTOR GOES SOFT … It’s been almost a year since Farrar, Straus & Giroux published The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People and — I can hardly believe it’s been a year already — FSG is getting reading to release in June a paperback version of The God Factor with the new, very VERY different cover you see there to your left. Whattyathink? The photograph was taken earlier this month by the fantastically... Read more

GODSTUFF: FEAR AND LOATHING IN LE PRIORIE: DON’T DROP THE BABY JESUS I do not wish to be a martyr. First of all, I don’t like to be uncomfortable, so stake-burning, iron maidens and coach class for longer than six hours are right out. And then there’s the fact that I’m a coward. Woody Allen once said that during the Vietnam War he was classified as 4P — “In case of war, I’m a hostage.” That’s me. My brother the... Read more

A HAPPY ANNOUNCEMENT: FURTHER ADVENTURES OF GOD GIRL It is our great pleasure here at God Girl HQ to announce that Cathleen has agreed to sally forth and write two more books, this time with the very fine folks at Zondervan. Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace is set to be released by Zondervan about this time next year, followed in the spring of 2009 by The Acrobat: Adventures in My Own Hypocrisy.Both books are non-fiction and will be... Read more

GODSTUFF: WHEN LOST IN HE LABYRINTH, ESCAPE BY MAGICAL THINKING February in Chicago is the perfect time and place to get lost in a fairy tale, fantasy or any alternate universe where the temperature manages to ascend north of zero. Even if you are stuck in a labyrinth and surrounded by fascists. For a few hours earlier this week, I got lost in “Pan’s Labyrinth,” the Oscar-nominated film by Mexican writer-director Guillermo del Toro. To those of you who haven’t... Read more