I am a professor of theology, but I cannot tell you what sacraments are. The sacraments, you see, are not things that can be explained but acts that engage us...
Personal spirituality
“A poem in the pocket means we will be accompanied wherever we go,” writes Bishop Robert Morneau. Morneau’s words ring true to me. Poems have been sturdy...
Looking for a daily devotion during Advent? Every day U.S. Catholic will bring you words of wisdom and questions for reflection from different spiritual...
I’m used to strangers stopping me in public. “What kind of bird is that on your arm?” they ask. “I’ve never seen a tattoo like that.” The tattoo in question is...
If you are into metaphor, as I am, what happened after the ninth inning in the seventh game of the 2016 World Series in Cleveland was a “baptism”...
I like the word wayfarer. It fits us humans. We are all travelers on the road of life. Me? I take wayfaring seriously. I walk daily for a couple of hours, and...
A year before I became a Catholic, I went on a retreat to an Orthodox monastery north of Columbus, Ohio. The monks occupied an old farm house and converted the...
“Know who you really are and how God can use you,” one of my seminary teachers exhorted. Living this injunction, simple albeit powerful in message, has been an...
Those who practice Zen refer to sitting in meditation as zazen. The Japanese word means “just sitting.” They do nothing else except sit and wait...
According to Trappist Father Thomas Keating, a decades-long practitioner and teacher of centering prayer, contemplative prayer is about relationship, not...
