The moment was 79 years ago, but it is as fresh in my mind as if it were yesterday: I was a first grader in Catholic school and, as such, was expected to...
Parish life
Walk down a city street in New York City or take a short drive through Chicago and you are likely to see numerous churches. Take a closer look at one of these...
At our little parish in Rhode Island, an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group meets once a week in the early evening. An Al-Anon group, for those affected by...
1. Commemorate the people whose land your church is on. Shantha Ready Alonso says that parishes can start working toward creation justice by being mindful of...
Most people don’t dream of working for the institutional church; it’s not high on the list for childhood career days or suggestions of what to be when one...
Attending Sunday Mass last year over Independence Day weekend, I watched as the priest gave the final blessing and a man a couple rows ahead genuflected and...
I was visiting missionary friends in Turkana, a remote, arid, and desolate region of Kenya, in the summer of 2001. My friends had asked me to help baptize 40...
A wet knot on a pair of sneakers is hard to untie—even harder when they’re on your feet. As the pastor of a multigenerational, multicultural, and multilingual...
I was in a tiny wooden town in Alaska recently when I walked past a tiny wooden church. I find small wooden sacred places irresistible, whether they are...
Every week, hands plunge into the earth at St. Benedict the African East Catholic Church in Englewood, a neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Around five...
