Slow down: Be where you are and be there well

It took nine months of attending services at her new parish before Sam, who is shy by nature and admits to avoiding events that could feel like a middle school cafeteria on the first day of school, summoned the courage to stop by coffee hour after Mass. Unfortunately, when she got there, she felt awkward and invisible. “No one smiled at or even made eye contact with me,” she says. “I suppose I could have inserted myself at a table, but I chickened out and went home.”

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The pandemic’s lessons on the importance of our common life

Stephanie Clary — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 14:37:27 +0000

Article Author:

David Cloutier

During the late spring of this unforgettable year, the United States became embroiled in a debate over how to respond to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Debates over reopening the economy were framed in terms of deaths versus dollars or health versus wealth.

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It’s time to make parishes accessible to people of all abilities

Stephanie Clary — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 21:53:00 +0000

Article Author:

Karen Jackson

In the spring of 2006, I made a decision to try a new Catholic church. As the mother of an 8-year-old with severe autism, I had already experienced my fair share of hurt and disappointment while attempting to include my daughter in community activities. My efforts to try to include her with her typical peers at the Catholic church where she was baptized had failed. As I walked into an appointment with the religious education director at a new church, I braced for another disappointment.

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Read, listen, and watch: July 2020 reviews

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 15:42:30 +0000

Article Author:

Read

The Least of These
By Carla Swafford Works (Eerdmans, 2020)

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How parishes can comfort the sorrowful and care for the grieving

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 15:54:56 +0000

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“But how do you get through the pain?”

Although tears fill her eyes, the woman’s voice is adamant as she directs this question to the leader of the bereavement group. Every person in the church’s parish center nods silently as they look at the woman with empathy and understanding. Their nods say: We’ve been there. Their eyes say: We feel for you.

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To mourn our ravaged Earth, look to the psalms

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 22:19:12 +0000

Article Author:

Rebecca Bratten Weiss

What does it mean to be in exile? The Christian tradition treats the idea of exile as a spiritual phenomenon: being sundered from our pristine beginnings, cast out of Eden, separated from God. “After this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus,” we pray to Mary.

Truth lies behind the idea that we are always a little homeless on this Earth, that our roots never get deep enough to nourish us completely. Yet at the same time, a notion of a purely spiritual exile can be dangerous, since we are physical beings, part of the ecosystems in which we live.

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Without the Eucharist, find nourishment in the sacrament of words

Stephanie Clary — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 12:17:45 +0000

Article Author:

Alice Camille

Will there be enough?

This question invaded our thoughts and made a bid for our souls in the early weeks of the pandemic this year. Fear of insufficiency made some of us do foolish things. Buy up the meat case at the market. Ingest enough zinc to make us sick. And, of course, invest in a closetful of toilet paper.

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What one priest’s mission in Jamaica taught him about joy in mourning

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 12:00:19 +0000

Article Author:

Tom McGann, C.M.F.

In 2001 I celebrated my first Mass as pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Kingston, Jamaica. The church was filled with music, fellowship, and warmth. Afterward, while I was greeting people as they left, one parishioner asked me, “Why did you not give us a homily today?”

Puzzled, I responded, “Sure I did, right after the gospel reading.” She replied, “That wasn’t a homily. It was more like a reflection.”

“Well, how long should a homily be?” I asked. “An hour, or at least 45 minutes,” she replied.

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How praying with memorial cards helps us grow in holiness

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 12:06:22 +0000

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Susan W. Murray

Several years ago, my brother and I found ourselves in the throes of that middle-aged rite of passage—the clearing out of our parents’ house—not long after doing the same at the home of our two maiden aunts.

There’s a commonality to the experience: unearthing moldy newspapers with historic headlines in the basement; combing through kitchen tools in search of a replacement for the one you dropped behind your stove; and bagging up clothes for the umpteenth trip to St. Vincent de Paul.

Sentimentality steals away moments. Overpowering emotion robs you of days.

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Not everything happens for a reason, says Kate Bowler

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 18:52:30 +0000

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When a megachurch popped up on the outskirts of Kate Bowler’s town, she didn’t understand why her friends were drawn to its worship. Over time, she discovered that the church preached a message of providence popular everywhere and among almost every demographic.

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During crisis, prayer leads to peace

Emily Sanna — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 16:54:13 +0000

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Ferdinand Okorie, C.M.F.

While nurses continue to wheel patients with suspected COVID-19 infections into the ICU, Dr. Felix and his team frantically try to stabilize a patient brought into the unit a day before as his condition goes from bad to worse.

Before leaving the patient’s bedside, although exhausted and out of breath, Dr. Felix laboriously lifts his hand, and crosses himself, muttering a prayer under his breath as his spirit is tested yet again by the virus that has infected so many people.

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Pandemic life may make mystics of us all

Stephanie Clary — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 03:31:11 +0000

Article Author:

Jessica Mesman

If you’re a regular consumer of media, you’ve surely reached your saturation point of hot takes on the cultural implications of the novel coronavirus. Within the first month of lockdown restrictions, we heard from those who committed themselves to self-improvement—taking free courses from Yale, planting victory gardens—and from those for whom this can’t be anything but a time of survival. We heard from parents grateful to have more time at home with their children and from parents who would eat glass to get their kids back in school.

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Beyond good intentions: The problem with well-meaning white people

Stephanie Clary — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 19:06:57 +0000

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Peter Feuerherd

Larry Cohen, a Queens, New York weekend warrior of the hoops variety, pulled me aside after a game.

“You are one of the whitest people I know,” he said.

This was in the pre-George Floyd demonstration era, a time when people were quick to toss around racial stereotypes—although it is doubtful much will change on the Queens courts once they open up after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

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True national defense keeps focus on the common good

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 16:06:39 +0000

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Kevin Clarke

Recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic will require some difficult personal and institutional soul-searching. Families will have to reevaluate consumer choices and work, life, and screen-time balance; civil society will have to ponder its evolving understanding of who and what is truly essential; and at the government level even grander policy shifts will be necessary.

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To parent in the present, practice ‘memento mori’

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 13:35:20 +0000

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As a new parent, I received all kinds of advice. While I have no doubt that the admonitions, ranging from “enjoy every minute” to “take time for yourself,” were well meaning, they weren’t exactly helpful. Short of our pediatrician’s suggestions for sleep training (truly, sharing this information is the Lord’s work), I filed most new-parent advice into the same folder of my brain where I once stored the reigning dates of English monarchs.

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Pray, study, and work: Benedictine ideas for discerning anti-racism

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 19:35:16 +0000

Article Author:

Jessie Bazan

“I would hear white students use the n-word freely.”

“Sophomore year, the professor assumed that because I was Black, I attended an inner-city school and grew up in the ‘ghetto.’”

“My boss didn’t understand why tokenizing students of color in marketing materials was a bad idea.”

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How moments of pause can open us to new possibilities

Stephanie Clary — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 22:02:33 +0000

Article Author:

Meghan J. Clark

I live in what was once the epicenter of the American COVID-19 pandemic—Queens, New York. We lived through 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy, yet the pandemic feels different. An indeterminacy and isolation to the current moment elude quantification or categorization. So, as I think about the pandemic, grief, and hope, I find an upwelling of questions without answers.

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Which Catholic women inspire you?

Rene Ostberg — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 14:45:32 +0000

Article Author:

Bernadette Raspante

“There is so much going on in the world today. How can I keep my faith when the world feels like such a negative place?”

“This 24-hour news cycle is making me lose my faith in humanity!”

“Whom do I look to when I don’t see anyone making decisions that align with my faith?”

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Everyday Spirituality

With parishes closed, find communion in creation

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 13:37:49 +0000

Article Author:

Rhonda Miska

Every Holy Week, we move through the paschal mystery with our bodies: We carry green palm branches, baskets of bread, bottles of wine, towels and basins; we walk shoulder to shoulder in procession; we smell the clouds of smoky incense and reverently feel the wooden cross beneath our hands.

We move through the paschal mystery with the heat and crackle of fire, the scent of beeswax, the slick wetness of chrism slathered on face and hands, the blast of trumpets, the sweet smell and bright sight of blooming lilies.

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‘U.S. Catholic’ welcomes new editor-in-chief

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 23:21:04 +0000

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The U.S. Catholic staff is delighted to welcome Claretian Father Ferdinand Okorie as the magazine’s new editor-in-chief, effective July 1, 2020. Father Okorie succeeds Claretian Father John Molyneux, who served as the editor-in-chief of the award-winning publication since January 2003.

Father Molyneux, who will continue to be involved in the magazine as a contributing editor, guided U.S. Catholic through a time period that spanned three popes and many changes in the Catholic Church.

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Small things bring comfort in times of crisis

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 14:00:00 +0000

Article Author:

Evelyn Bence

Forty years ago, my mother gave me a ragged patch-work quilt made of earth-toned wools—warm except where it was moth-eaten or worn through. I first used it as a bed covering in a cold New Jersey apartment but eventually repurposed it.

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COVID-19 is not the only pandemic our nation is fighting

Stephanie Clary — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 13:04:45 +0000

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Across the nation, attacks against Asian Americans are on the rise. There have been stabbings in Texas, assaults in New York and San Francisco, and physical attacks, racial slurs, and spittle hurled in other locales. In Chicago and its suburbs, people of Korean, Cambodian, and other “Chinese-looking” ethnicities have been spat upon, called “chink,” assaulted while jogging, and told to “go back where you came from.”

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To maintain her calm, this Catholic sister tweets prayers to @POTUS

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 18:52:54 +0000

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Sister of Saint Joseph of Peace Susan Francois grew up knowing that the Catholic faith is connected to making the world a better place, but she probably didn’t expect she would be using her voice as a woman of the Church to influence public discourse on Twitter, one of the world’s top social media websites.

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Should Catholics serve in the military?

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 13:05:45 +0000

Article Author:

Stephen Schneck

Christ preached turning the other cheek, doing good to those who persecute you, and loving your enemies. At the Sermon on the Mount, he reminded us that the meek will inherit the earth and that peacemakers shall be called children of God. With all these teachings on peace, what does that mean for Catholics who want to serve in the military?

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Messengers of comfort and courage: The truth about angels

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 12:04:26 +0000

Article Author:

Lisa Raatikainen

Around the turn of the millenium, British scholar Emma Heathcote-James set out to collect stories of modern day angel encounters. She placed a classified ad seeking personal accounts of angelic contact and was startled at the number of people who eagerly came forward to share their experiences. The reports rolled in from across a wide swath of cultural and religious identities, including many who claimed little interest in spiritual matters.

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Journalist Tim Egan on the pilgrimage that reignited his faith

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 12:37:55 +0000

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Timothy Egan was at a crossroads. Raised in a large, devout, progressive Irish Catholic family in Washington State, the bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times had let the faith of his upbringing lapse. It was “time to force the issue, to decide what I believe or admit what I don’t,” he says. For him, the way forward was a pilgrimage: the Via Francigena.

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A new book helps white congregations engage racial justice

Stephanie Clary — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 17:51:18 +0000

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“I can’t believe what you say because I see what you do.”

This was James Baldwin’s incisive critique on the pretty words of white people, especially white Christians, when engaging with racial injustice. Baldwin’s words have stuck with me for years, and that is why I often am extra-critical of white priests, pastors, theologians, and writers who attempt to offer a constructive word on racial justice. With so many wise authors of color to read, most books of this kind are just not worth the time it takes to read, let alone the price tag that goes along with it.

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It’s time to treat essential workers like the cornerstones they are

Stephanie Clary — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 18:12:54 +0000

Article Author:

Kevin Clarke

As quarantines and stay-at-home orders roiled the United States and nations around the world in late March, in a matter of days more than 4 billion people worldwide faced some form of home lockdown. Economic distress is now widespread because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, but the suffering that COVID-19 will engender will not be equally distributed. Social and economic vulnerabilities and inequities that make the difference between life and death for thousands have quickly become apparent.

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This Juneteenth, make racial reconciliation a priority

Stephanie Clary — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 14:48:18 +0000

Article Author:

Patrick Saint-Jean, S.J.

On June 19, 2019, Congress introduced a new bill: H.R. 40. The bill advocates for the creation of a commission to examine the possible payment of reparations to African Americans descended from enslaved persons.

The date—June 19—was intentional. On June 19, 1865, the last enslaved people gained news of their emancipation in Galveston, Texas, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Today, many in the Black community consider Juneteenth to be their true Independence Day.

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3 monastic rules for ordering your life

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 17:28:46 +0000

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In the hundreds of years since their development, the monastic rules of Saints Augustine, Benedict, and Francis have ordered and oriented the lives of monks, sisters and lay people across the globe. Their emphasis on daily ritual, manageable though virtuous behaviors and everyday actions appeal to anyone seeking a deeper spiritual life, a time-tested order for cultivating meaning in the day-to-day rhythm of life, and guidance on prioritizing the things that matter most.

Here are a few suggestions for integrating their lessons into your own life:

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Why monastic rules appeal in the midst of chaos

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 17:17:37 +0000

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Read the words “monastic rule” and images of chanting bearded men in coarsely woven habits, or rows of veiled sisters processing solemnly into a chapel likely arise.

But with a little digging into church history and a deeper look into the modern practice of monasticism, you’ll find that the rules crafted by saints of centuries past have much to offer anyone who seeks to live a purposeful and reflective life in the present day.

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Lessons in love from a growing family

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 01:27:53 +0000

Article Author:

Matt Paolelli

This was not our first rodeo.

After several tense moments of anticipation, the test finally flashed “PREGNANT,” and it became official: our third pregnancy in four years.

The difference between preparing for our first child and our third was night and day.

When my wife, Theresa, and I discovered we were expecting for the first time, we went into expectant parent overdrive: We read books and online articles for new parents that talked through best- and worst-case scenarios. I started a dad blog to capture all my prebirth wonders and worries.

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Millennials are seeking spiritual community. Where are they finding it?

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 12:46:03 +0000

Article Author:

Judith Valente

On Tuesday evenings, a group of young adults streams into a storefront on Chicago’s North Side that doubles as an art gallery and events venue. They settle into rows of red and yellow plastic chairs as a jazz trio plays a bouncy rendition of “You’ve Got a Friend.” When the music stops, a man and woman walk to the front of the room and sit on stools. They read a brief meditation from a book called Stillness Speaks then launch into what is partly a dialogue, partly a homily on healthy relationships.

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To make sense of the new normal, look to the Christian ethical tradition

Stephanie Clary — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 13:47:12 +0000

Article Author:

Father Bryan Massingale

I write from New York City three weeks after life has been disrupted and upended in ways that I could never have imagined. The novel coronavirus and the threat of COVID-19 have suddenly forced upon us all dramatic changes in how we work (or even if we are able to work), socialize, communicate, shop, and worship.

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How to seek Jesus amid COVID-19

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 13:25:34 +0000

Article Author:

Ferdinand Okorie, C.M.F.

One cold day in March, the Sosa family was getting ready for dinner when they heard on the evening news that their state had been ordered to shelter in place. Businesses were closed, only essential workers could go to work, and everyone had to practice social distancing when out and about, whether walking the dog or picking up groceries.

The Sosa’s 13-year-old daughter, an altar server at their home parish, asked her parents if they would still be going to church. But news quickly spread that all churches were closed for worship.

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What a devoted dog can teach us about Christ’s love

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 12:26:37 +0000

Article Author:

Sue Stanton

Once on a bus ride through the lush green hills of Jordan, on the side of the road I saw a border collie like mine. It was standing quietly next to a young Bedouin shepherd busily moving his hands as he spoke to an older man. I watched the dog’s head turn slow and steady. Scanning from side to side, the black and white gazed into the flock of sheep that stretched out before it.

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To express rage at injustice, turn to music

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 12:26:37 +0000

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Honk, Honk Honk. “Black Lives Matter!” Beep, Beep, Beep. “Black Lives Matter!”

Voices and car horns synchronized to create a rhythm of solidarity. Fists were raised. Eyes connected. Heads nodded. Cars were adorned with “No Justice, No Peace,” “Say their names,” “White Supremacy is a sin,” and other slogans.

This was protest in the time of COVID. In Chicago, led by African-American clergy, thousands of people protested nonviolently against the dehumanization of black lives and for the creation of a society wherein racial justice abides.

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What church leaders can learn from St. Paul about race and diversity

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 23:07:04 +0000

Article Author:

Ferdinand Okorie, C.M.F.

When St. Paul arrives in the Roman Empire, teaching the gospel of God’s love for humanity through the self-gift of Christ on the cross, he meets an empire structured around class, status, ethnicity, and gender. Within this culture, his message resonates among those disenfranchised by the Roman social order and the legal system that keeps some out while turning them into property and human capital.

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‘Spinning Out’ unmasks the lived experience of mental illness

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 22:43:03 +0000

Article Author:

Pamela Hill Nettleton

Behind the scenes in competitive ice skating, all is not sequins and sweetness in Netflix’s one-season wonder, Spinning Out. The series is compelling for unexpected reasons, and it takes uncommon risks in tackling a verboten topic.

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How Catholics can work for racial justice

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 21:48:18 +0000

Article Author:

Patrick Saint-Jean, S.J.

A healing beatitude

Blessed are you who are willing to engage in a sincere conversation about race.
Blessed are you who embrace your Black sisters and brothers in the fight for social justice.
Blessed are you who are willing to be uncomfortable for the sake of healing our society.
Blessed are you who ask your bishop about racial equity training and programming in your diocese.
Blessed are you who pray to end racism as a pro-life issue.
Amen

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10 Catholic pilgrimages that don’t require a passport

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 17:57:19 +0000

Article Author:

Susan Salaz

We are all pilgrims. Recent events have taught us that we are all on a journey, at times together, but the pilgrimage is our own.

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Should Catholics eat less meat?

Rene Ostberg — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 12:57:31 +0000

Article Author:

Stephanie Clary

The evening before I was to lead a day-long workshop on “Our Universal Call to Care for Creation,” I asked my parents if they would listen to my keynote presentation, and they lovingly obliged.

After 75 minutes of detailing Christianity’s inherent ecological consciousness and various approaches to living ecologically ethical lives, I asked if they had any questions. My mom, with more of a revelation than a query, said, “So that’s why you became so ‘green.’ It’s because of your faith.”

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Environment

To confront the refugee crisis, this Catholic turned to music

Stephanie Clary — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 12:47:51 +0000

Article Author:

Jennon Bell Hoffmann

“You should probably sit down for this.”

A teenage Sebastian Agignoae had stumbled across a confusing document from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in his family’s security box. When he approached his parents about the mysterious item, his father thought it was time to fill in his son about their personal journey.

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Pentecost demands a faith that moves

Stephanie Clary — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 19:37:31 +0000

Article Author:

Travis LaCouter

Thoughts and prayers—such is the typical response to tragedy in the United States of America. It is an especially common refrain after the death of innocents, almost always urged upon us by those who know that they have something to lose should a more fundamental challenge to the system arise.

And why not? For many people, prayer refers to something private, something silent. Catholics often think that prayer leads one further into oneself, not out into the world.

The occasion of Pentecost demands that we see things differently.

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Required reading: A Black Catholic syllabus

Emily Sanna — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 15:16:13 +0000

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In the days and weeks since the killing of George Floyd and the protests for racial justice in all 50 states, lists have circulated of books, articles, and other resources to better understand the history of police brutality, black activism, and the legacy of racism in the United States.

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How Mexican immigrants changed Chicago’s parishes

Stephanie Clary — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 16:07:19 +0000

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Deborah Kanter first became interested in studying the history of Mexican American Catholicism in Chicago while visiting a Catholic church on the Southwest Side. “It seemed very, very Mexican,” she says. “But when I looked up at the stained glass windows, all the names of the people who donated money to install the windows were Czech. I thought to myself, ‘Wow, what would it have been like to be the first Mexican person to walk into this white, Bohemian community?’ ”

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Find God in creation with St. Cuthbert

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 01:36:13 +0000

Article Author:

Kenneth McIntosh

This is one article in a three-part series on pilgrim saints, also including: Pray while you walk with St. Dominic de Guzman and Work for justice with St. Katharine Drexel.

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Parish Life

Work for justice with St. Katharine Drexel

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 01:16:47 +0000

Article Author:

Alice Camille

This is one article in a three-part series on pilgrim saints, also including: Pray while you walk with St. Dominic de Guzman and Find God in creation with St. Cuthbert.

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Pray while you walk with St. Dominic de Guzman

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 00:56:09 +0000

Article Author:

Rhonda Miska

This is one article in a three-part series on pilgrim saints, also including: Work for justice with St. Katharine Drexel and Find God in creation with St. Cuthbert.

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During pandemic, the Trinity provides new hope

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 17:25:08 +0000

Article Author:

Emily Sanna

I’ve always been drawn to the Catholic liturgy,” a (non-Catholic) friend of mine once told me over breakfast, “but I can’t get past the Trinity. Three persons in one God. What does that even mean? It doesn’t make any sense.”

At the time, I think I deflected her remarks. I probably said something like, “Yeah, it doesn’t make a lot of logical sense” or “Yep, that’s why it’s called a mystery.” Now, though, I wish I had been braver, less afraid of diving into the deep questions over coffee and French toast.

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Is ignorance a sin?

Stephanie Clary — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 16:47:53 +0000

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I am the father of two boys. Like all children, they sometimes cause harm without intending to do so. When they were very young, my wife and I would tell them: “Do not . . . (fill in the blank). You will get hurt.” Of course, they would do it anyway and cause some minor injury to themselves by touching a hot pot, pulling a big book off of a shelf, or running on ice. Bandages and hugs would be necessary. Their actions were out of ignorance, but they had to learn.

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In the spirit of Pentecost, stoke the flames of justice

Stephanie Clary — Fri, 29 May 2020 12:37:11 +0000

Article Author:

Jessie Bazan

Right now, there is a city—and a people—on fire.

Hundreds are flooding Minneapolis streets to demand justice for George Floyd: a fiancé, a father, and as of Monday, a fatality. The story is far too familiar. A white police officer stops a black man. A short time later, the white officer kills the black man. Then the white officer walks away free—and the litany of black lives lost grows once more.

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Read, listen, and watch: June 2020 reviews

Emily Sanna — Thu, 28 May 2020 16:25:40 +0000

Article Author:

Annemarie Scobey-Polacheck

Read

Spiritual Conversations with Children
By Lacy Finn Borgo (InterVarsity Press, 2020)

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The man behind the politics of racial resentment

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 27 May 2020 12:27:18 +0000

Article Author:

Danny Duncan Collum

Stephen K. Bannon, former chief strategist for Donald Trump, could be the most dangerous man in America. He understands that America’s non-college-educated workers are right to be mad about 45 years of stagnant or declining wages, and, ever since his days at Breitbart News, Bannon has proved himself a master at using mass media to divert that anger away from the billionaire class and toward immigrants and Muslims.

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Teach kids how the resurrection guides Catholic life

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 27 May 2020 02:32:22 +0000

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The story of Jesus’ resurrection is the gospel account most central to the faith of Christians, yet, in a paradox, it’s arguably the most difficult gospel story to believe. Healing the sick and even walking on water begin to seem like minor miracles when compared to being killed on a cross, being dead for three days, and then rising to new life.

Yet if we believe in the resurrection of Christ—if we truly believe—it should change everything about the way we live.

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What will the next season bring? Just listen to the trees.

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 26 May 2020 16:54:38 +0000

Article Author:

Jessie Bazan

From death sprouts new life.

I walk among trees that know the pain of dying. The wise elders that live in my local arboretum weather their share of storms, just like all of us.

Perhaps the worst storm for these trees came on the unseasonably hot evening of June 27, 1894. Heavy clouds rolled in as the sun set. The critters accustomed to dancing at dusk grew still. An eerie calm quieted the trees.

Then the tornado touched down. Limbs snapped. Roots ripped. Branches flew. What took seconds to level would take decades to grow anew, but the forest would flourish again.

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge—a poet with prophetic voice

Stephanie Clary — Fri, 22 May 2020 01:02:21 +0000

Article Author:

David Russell Mosley

When I sit down to read a poem, I am brought out of myself and into a different vision of the world. Whether through meter, rhyme, metaphor, or even just line breaks, reading poetry encourages me to see the world in a different light. This is the claim Samuel Taylor Coleridge makes specifically for the poetry of his friend William Wordsworth, but it applies to all poetry.

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Do Catholics have to care for creation?

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 20 May 2020 22:19:40 +0000

Article Author:

Michael Wright

Many people are familiar with the Book of Genesis referring to humanity’s “dominion” over the earth (1:28). We often misunderstand this to mean we humans have free rein to exploit creation for our own gain, often at others’ expense. Rather, God, in providing for us through a life-giving world, bestowed upon humanity the responsibility of stewardship.

In Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home), Pope Francis clarifies that stewardship is an act of respect for creation. The world is more than a collection of resources for utilitarian consumption.

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Tell me about it: To understand the church, listen to its people

Stephanie Clary — Wed, 20 May 2020 00:31:05 +0000

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You can’t talk about the church without stories, says Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a theologian and professor of religious studies at Manhattan College. In other words, to understand Catholicism, you have to first understand Catholics. And you can’t do that without understanding where each individual comes from—their culture, family background, and social location.

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Can prayer heal?

Stephanie Clary — Tue, 19 May 2020 00:54:39 +0000

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