Picture this: a warm midspring morning, predawn. Nobody is awake. The birds chirp. The trees gently rustle. The air is fresh. The world is coated with a light...
Personal spirituality
Read U.S. Catholic’s coverage of personal spirituality, offering insights, stories, and resources to nurture your prayer, discernment, and spiritual growth.
Although many Catholics might find them unassuming, devotions and the popular piety that surrounds them are often met with scorn. They can be one of the...
Each of us contains a multiplicity of selves. This becomes most obvious to us when we experience an inner conflict of desires. Perhaps our desire for a more...
The title “prince of the church” carries with it the sound of trumpets, the flash of a ring, the image of royalty. But Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, far from...
Every Holy Week, we move through the paschal mystery with our bodies: We carry green palm branches, baskets of bread, bottles of wine, towels and basins; we...
Recently a friend asked me why I was Catholic. I mumbled the first few reasons that entered my head—the faith of my family, the enticing power of the...
When weepy Mexican women embrace you in a small, dimly lit chapel, it’s hard to find appropriate words to greet their emotion. And when you speak broken-at...
Although my wife isn’t sure a man can be a feminist, I’m a male feminist. I got to be this way both through conviction and self-defense—I live with three women...
The November night I dedicated my life to Christ—the night I let go—was the night I devoted myself to my career. Faith and craft became one. Standing on a...
In fourth grade, to Sister Clarita at St. Raphael’s Elementary School, I announced I would be a writer. Had I known about jobs with more status and better pay...
