Neither Spiritual nor Religious?
One of the most solemn and ancient rituals of the Catholic Church is the Easter Vigil. As the name implies, it is held on the Saturday evening before Easter and ...
The Value of Doubt
I recently watched “Freud’s Last Session” on Netflix, a movie set in England at the start of WW2. It stars Anthony Hopkins as Sigmund Freud, the famous pioneer in psychoanalysis ...
Does Faith Make You Happy?
Mother Teresa, the Nobel prize-winning nun who dedicated her life to serving the poorest and sickest in India, always appeared to be cheerful and joyous. But her letters, collected and ...
Can You “Practice” Joy?
How should you judge whether a Mass, or church service, was good or bad? For me, among the criteria is whether or not you leave happier than you went into ...
Ruined for Life?
In 1989, the military in El Salvador murdered six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter in their home in San Salvador. The priests were internationally recognized scholars who wrote and ...
Insights into What Comes Next
I’ve written before about my 4-year-old grandson, Leo. Many grandfathers would say this about their grandchildren, of course, but I think he’s exceptionally smart. He asks a lot of smart ...