Personal spirituality

Coming out Catholic

It’s said that coming out is a lifelong process. There are its initial, more dramatic phases, usually connected with firsts (though not necessarily in this...

A Prayer For Our Daily Murder

Frequent contributor Brian Doyle writes, furious and haunted and mourning, from Oregon, where nine people were murdered and 10 others crippled by a gun-toting...

How to say ‘no’

“Secure your oxygen mask before helping others.” Many of us don’t even pay attention to these words anymore. We’re old hands at flying, so while the flight...

Confessions of a bad Catholic

By Ann LeBlanc I’m not a good Catholic. I can be arrogant, intolerant, and self-centered. I’m judgmental, I swear, and I can (and do) say perfectly horrible...

Accompanying the suffering

As Ebola patients began to die in Africa last summer, it was not difficult for me to revisit the memory of my first AIDS patient. His death hurled me into an...

A canticle a day

One of the most valuable experiences from my boarding school days—and one that has remained with me—is the habit of formal prayer. I remember praying the Nunc...