The mother lay prostrate on the table, her arms splayed out cruciform. We taped them down, stood on two sides of her, unfurling the surgical drapes across her...
Articles
This year I did something I swore I would never do: I ditched the parish pledge envelopes and signed up for automatic deduction. For years I had been committed...
The first biography of St. Francis of Assisi, written by fellow friar Thomas of Celano, recounts an event in the Italian town of Greccio in 1223 that continues...
It sounds like a trick question akin to “Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?” Of course Jesus’ birth is Christmas Day. But did the Incarnate Word arrive on December...
Two parishes stand at the heart of St. Louis, Missouri: St. Francis Xavier (more commonly known as College Church, with a congregation that is predominantly...
“Who was right?” It’s one of the first questions Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) asks after arriving in the afterlife, curious about how her new surroundings...
At 10:00 a.m., Fr. Isaac Keeley pauses to pray. But this Trappist monk isn’t shuffling into a choir stall flanked by icons for his mid-morning ritual. The...
My aunt has no children, and my mother has only me, and this has been their shared sorrow and their shame. In their world, to have so few children is a mark of...
My father hates Christmas. We have a picture of him lying on my parents’ couch, wrapped up in a blanket, wearing both a Santa hat and a look of utter...
“Do you think Christmas really happened that way?” I asked my friend Brian one cold winter evening at the Catholic Worker farm as we gathered wood for a...
