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Columns

On retreat with Pope Francis

By Soren Johnson
Biographies – much like hunting or birdwatching – track elusive prey. So my hopes were set relatively low for The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope by Austen Ivereigh, especially when the media narrative of Pope Francis, the “pope of surprises,” is so often clouded by the trifecta of bias, ignorance […]
4/22/15
Reading Time 3 min

Newman and Vatican II

By George Weigel
That Blessed John Henry Newman was one of the great influences on Vatican II is “a commonplace,” as Newman’s biographer, Father Ian Ker, puts it. But what does that mean? What influence did Newman have on a council that opened 72 years after his death? And from this side of history, what might we learn […]
4/22/15
Reading Time 3 min

Catholic triumphalism

By Russell Shaw
Is it time to revive Catholic triumphalism? On the whole, I’d say yes. At the very least, the question isn’t frivolous and deserves serious consideration. For after several decades during which Catholics have offered repeated apologies for a host of mistakes, sometimes real and sometimes imaginary, the feeling grows that a comparable effort devoted to […]
4/22/15
Reading Time 3 min

Time management

By
Memo to: Caesar. From: Pontius Pilate, Procurator, Jerusalem. Subject: My strategy for governing the Jews. 33 A.D (whatever A.D. means). Yo, Caesar (no offense intended)! You’ll be pleased I’m at last tuning in to the culture according to your instructions and trying to reach out to the Jews to keep them “on the reservation” as […]
4/22/15
Reading Time 4 min

Even then, He knew you

By Mary Beth Bonacci
As I write this, the church is observing Good Friday. Which means that, by the time you read this, Jesus will have risen, and we will be well into the Easter season. Apparently, after 25 years, I haven’t yet mastered the art of meditating on the liturgical year several weeks in advance, so as to […]
4/15/15
Reading Time 4 min

Passover and the Last Supper

By Fr. William P. Saunders
Q: During Holy Week, I read the Passion stories of Jesus’ Last Supper, Crucifixion and Resurrection. It seems confusing: The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke have Jesus and the apostles eating a Passover meal, but the Gospel of St. John has Jesus dying before Passover began. Is there a reason for this? – A […]
4/15/15

Wrapping words around His word

By Elizabeth Foss
It’s a good thing Easter is a season, because Lent was loath to let go. The week before Easter, my brother-in-law died. Before the suitcase was unpacked after his funeral, a very dear friend died in the early morning of Holy Thursday. And Good Friday was cold and dark and a little scarier than usual […]
4/14/15
Reading Time 4 min

Eating and drinking

By
“Have you anything here to eat?” (Lk 24:41) It seems an unlikely and indeed a curious question from the Risen Lord. The one who triumphed over every form of human torment and even death itself could hardly suffer hunger pangs in His risen body. Yet He asks the question – and for good reason. He […]
4/14/15
Reading Time 3 min

Easter and evangelism

By George Weigel
Galatians 1:15-18 is not your basic “witness to the Resurrection” text. Yet St. Paul’s mini-spiritual autobiography helps us understand just how radically the experience of the Risen Lord changed the first disciples’ religious worldview and why an evangelical imperative was built into that experience. Here’s the Pauline text: “… when He who had set me […]
4/8/15
Reading Time 3 min

The abundance of God’s divine mercy

By
Easter is a 50-day celebration of the brand new life that Jesus gives to those who know, love and believe in Him. It is an invitation to participate in and celebrate His mighty victory over Satan, sin and death. It is a spring time of new life bursting upon our world … without the side […]
4/8/15
Reading Time 4 min

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