As Christians, we don’t typically view music the way we view activities like recreational sex or drunk driving. While Christian morality warns against...
Practicing Catholic
Practicing Catholic essays explore Catholic spiritual practices, from lectio divina to washing dishes, through personal reflections on prayer and ritual.
In autumn of 2015, I began organizing an annual wassail in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. On the Saturday after the University of Chicago’s fall quarter...
My mom told me about an occasion when a devout evangelical woman first saw the religious images sprinkled about our home. “These are idols!” my mom’s friend...
“When you find yourself in a situation like mine, you tend to forget that you have value, that you’re worth something. . . . So once again thank you for that...
Just as I began learning the rudiments of the sacred art of iconography, the man teaching me left for an extended European holiday. He embarked on his...
The Advent calendar is one of the few traditions from my Catholic childhood that really took root in my own children’s lives. The Jesse Tree, which I had loved...
When Jesus called his disciples, he promised to make them fishers of men. He also gave nautical and angling advice during his ministry. We might think of...
Ten years ago, I lived by the Venice Beach Boardwalk, famous for its outdoor weightlifting complex known as Muscle Beach. Bodybuilders such as Arnold...
I love Holy Week. With its processions, readings, incense, colors, and music, it is the most theatrical time of the liturgical year, when each of us can step...
As soon as the temperature drops below 60 degrees in New York City, I know it’s almost time. The rest of the city dwellers begin to adorn their windows and...
