Avoiding the Mistakes of Judas
When we speak ill of others, we are imitating Judas. We commodify people like Judas did to the Son of God. I’ve been reflecting on Pope Francis’s short homily to the workers at his current home at...
View ArticleThe Pope and the Girls in Rome
Troubled girls at a detention center for juvenile delinquents. In a world where men and women need healing and boys and girls and young men and women need to know there is hope for their lives and a...
View ArticleTake a Risk with Your Best Friend Forever … and Ever
Celebrating Easter, as we continue to, Pope Francis talks about Christ as a friend. This continues a main theme — perhaps the main theme — of Pope Benedict’s pontificate. He wanted us to know Jesus....
View ArticlePope Francis Can’t Do This By Himself!
A reflection on Tuesday’s Gospel reading: are we men and women of …encouragement, enthusiastically trying to inspire others to grow in faith, to come more deeply into their friendship with Christ,...
View ArticleThis Too Will Pass … into Glory!
If we make the right choice — to live in trusting surrender to God, we have nothing to worry about. We have challenges and pain and bills to pay, of course. Some challenges that were once unthinkable...
View ArticleBe Not of This World
Oh my goodness, the continuity, and the Spirit unleashed! That’s my continued experience of Pope Francis. This morning’s homily is no exception. He talked about that when we, members of the Body of...
View ArticleThey’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Whine?
From the Catholic News Agency’s report on Tuesday morning Mass with Pope Francis: Reflecting on how St. Paul endured pain for Christ, Pope Francis said that good Christians do not complain about their...
View ArticlePeople Need to Be Touched By the Lord
We must open doors, Pope Francis implored at Mass this morning. He said that “the people God are always asking for something closer to Jesus, they are sometimes a bit insistent in this. But it is the...
View ArticleWhy Church?
How much do I love the Church? Do I pray for her? Do I feel part of the family of the Church? What am I doing to make it a community in which everyone feels welcomed and understood, feels God’s mercy...
View ArticleDon’t Be Trapped by the Spirit of the World
Last night, a man at a checkout counter started telling me some alarming stories. About a crime around the corner earlier in the day, about crimes in his apartment building. It was all a bit jarring —...
View ArticleTwo Popes, One Encyclical, All Eyes on Jesus — with His Eyes, in His Heart
The conversation I imagine may have happened (roughly translated): “Brother, you should really co-sign Lumen Fidei. It’s yours, you wrote it. I’m an editor. My hand was light on this letter.” “The Holy...
View ArticleIt’s Easter in Rio
I was struck today by the feast day as the pope arrived in Rio. We celebrate the life of Mary Magdalene, we give thanks that she reported what she had seen: The Lord. The young people who gather in Rio...
View ArticleThis Day in Rio: The Love that Transforms Us
There is so much to say, with an eye on Pope Francis and all the young people in love with our Lord in Rio. My favorite line of the day may be from Pope Francis during his homily at the shrine at...
View ArticleSt. Peter Would Have Tweeted about the #DamnedDevil
At the 12:10 Mass at St. Peter’s Church on Capitol Hill, the pastor suggested that St. Peter Chrysologus, whose feast we celebrate today (July 30), may have just loved Twitter; he is known for his...
View ArticleYo Yo Yo See Me Chillaxed with Da Pope? Yeah!
NBC reports that Pope Francis posed for a “selfie” yesterday with a group of kids, “following in the footsteps of stars like Rihanna, Madonna and Justin Bieber,” even if he has failed to post it to his...
View ArticleAre You Drowning?
One of the unmistakable themes of the papacy of Pope Francis thus far is mercy, begging men and women to go to God and ask Him for His mercy again and again. So much so that the predominant rumor is...
View ArticleWhat Are You Doing with that Wine?
Friday’s gospel is about new wine and old wineskins. Fr. James Bradley (whose Twitter feed — @FrJamesBradley — is a source of social-media spiritual nourishment) reflects: fervent and yet silent...
View ArticleFeel Deeply the Salvation of the Mystery of the Cross
Be human already! Christ became man for you, died for you, feel this, know this. This is Pope Francis’s full message of peace to the world. Pope Benedict knew he couldn’t plead like whoever the Holy...
View ArticleYou Are Beloved
During one Saturday Mass this summer, a priest shared how surprised we might be that at the expensive, renowned institution of higher education where he was chaplain, how many students had deep doubts...
View ArticleDesire Mercy
I recently subscribed to a daily Ignatian reflection from the Magis Center for Catholic Spirituality, a project of the endlessly impressive Fr. Robert J. Spitzer. Today Fr. Michael Maher — all S.J.s —...
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