Weekly Word

If there were ever going to be a patron saint of listeners, surely it should be Mary's cousin Elizabeth, the wisdom figure to whom she went when she realized that she was pregnant with Jesus.

July 22 is the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, “the apostle to the apostles.”

It’s July when the summer begins to wear even the most dedicated of sun lovers down. Life begins to feel sticky; nights get close; days get long and dry.

Of all the stories told about Benedict, this one may be the most impacting of all on our own lives. Most of us will never work miracles or found monasteries or humble invaders, that’s for sure.

What does the prophetic tradition, the prophetic dimension of the spiritual life, have to do with us?

The eternal icon of the prophet occupies the corner of my desk.

Slowly, slowly I began to ask myself a different question: Could a woman really be a Catholic at all? The fullness of the faith was surely not meant for us.

Psalm 130 teaches us to pray: “My soul relies on God more than a sentry on the coming of dawn.” Someplace deep inside us we know, even in our loneliest moments, that we are not alone.

Only one evangelist, Luke, talks about the Ascension as a separate dimension of the life of Christ.

The first time I went to Rome, experienced the intrigues of the Curia, saw the politics of the system, watched the maneuverings of national clerical alliances, and realized how helpless women were

No one ever taught us Marian theology in any organized academic way. They didn’t need to even try. It came with the May altars we built in grade school.

The sixth step of humility is to be “content with the lowest and most menial treatment.” We might say, “to be content with less than the best.”

Of all the attitudes we bring to prayer, presence is at once one of the simplest and one of the most difficult.

Interesting. The day starts and ends at the tomb. No flash of light. No announcement. Simply the awareness that what has been is gone.

What is worse than the actual event of death is the awareness of the degree of loss that comes with it.