The church is often imagined as a pyramid, with the pope at the apex, priests somewhere around the middle, and laypeople at the base. This image reinforces the...
Our Faith
Essays and reporting on theology and scripture that put our faith in the context of everyday life.
Many years ago, I visited the beautiful Belgian city of Bruges. Wandering along the canals, I came to what is called a beguinage, where women called Beguines...
Looking ahead to the new year in those final weeks of 2024, I found myself laying the groundwork for what became something of a family social experiment. With...
“It just doesn’t feel like a holiday without pasta,” my mother-in-law told us as she set a steaming bowl of tortellini onto the table in preparation for...
Do you ever feel like you’re “accomplishing Christmas” rather than savoring Christmas? Ironically, in this season designed to celebrate and enjoy God-with-us...
In September 2022, my wife and I started trying to have a baby. We were sure that we would be pregnant within a few months, and have a child within the year...
Advent is God’s invitation to be a witness. We are invited to the manger to await the most tender miracle of all: to see with our own eyes, hear with our own...
Jennifer Houston McNeel is an author and professor at St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute, Baltimore, Maryland For many of us, when we think of mothers in the...
Pope Francis, in Amoris Laetitia (On Love in the Family), spoke of marriage as an encounter, a union, and a sacrament in which Christ himself meets the couple...
A time traveler to Europe’s Early Middle Ages might be startled by what they found if they landed there in mid-December. No jolly good cheer, no feasts, no...
