Essay: Rejoice. I say it again: Rejoice
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be apparent to all. The Lord is near.” That’s St. Paul writing to the Philippians. [...]
Essay: At this turning point, we follow the lead of the Holy Spirit
In my mind’s eye, I see the Holy Spirit hovering over the typewriter repair shop on Belmont Avenue, over the neo-gothic Chicago Tribune skyscraper on Michigan Avenue and over my [...]
Poem: Seventeen questions about hate
Seventeen questions about hate by Patrick T. Reardon If I believe that Donald Trump is bad for the United States and the rest of the world because [...]
Essay: We are all Us
The gospel reading this weekend in Roman Catholic churches around the world is a very familiar one to Christians — and with good reason. In Mark’s telling of the life [...]
Essay: The old man who was once a boy on the altar
The year is 1962, and a tall, drowsy boy opens the front door of his family’s crowded two-flat to the grey darkness of near dawn. The sidewalk along Leamington Avenue [...]
Essay: Christianity, a radical endeavor
Christianity is a radical endeavor. Jesus was a revolutionary, not of the violent sort, but a revolutionary of the heart and of the spirit. Just listen to his words from [...]
Essay: Pentecost and the fruit of the Spirit
Last month, for Pentecost Sunday, one of the choices for a second reading was from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and its high point, for me, was this sentence near [...]
Essay: The endless ripples of a book recommendation
About five years ago, I read two books that knocked my socks off — the exquisitely evocative Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and that massive, epic, beautiful whale of [...]
Essay: An artist is a kind of saint
He hasn’t been canonized, but I think of Michelangelo as a sort of saint. William Shakespeare, too. And Emily Dickinson, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Frank Sinatra, Beethoven, Aretha Franklin and Chaucer. I [...]
Essay: Jesus as an innocent, whiny and giggly little kid
You’ve heard it, probably as often as I have: Christmas is for kids. The idea is that Christmas is a time when the eyes of children grow large with wonder [...]