Thirty years ago, the fine theologian John Shea, teaching a course on redemption, introduced me to Flannery O’Connor’s fiction. I found her stories...
Personal spirituality
Robert Orsi makes a brave choice in his recent book Between Heaven and Earth (Princeton University Press). “There’s a taboo associated with speaking out of...
At my 30th class reunion, one of the lectures offered was by a young psychologist doing cognitive research. He showed us a three-minute video, and our task was...
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...
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...
My wife and I run together at a local state park. “Together” is optimistic; I can no longer keep pace with her. We ran track together in college, but I am a...
“That’s Jesus, Mama!” shouted my cousin’s exuberant daughter, Claire. Her mother was reading to her not from the gospels, but from the climactic scene of The...
“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...
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...
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...
