When I think of martyrs, I usually think of people with foreign-sounding names like Perpetua or Attalus, both of whom were thrown to the lions in the Roman...
Our Faith
Essays and reporting on theology and scripture that put our faith in the context of everyday life.
My family attended an inner-city parish in Akron, Ohio as I was growing up. This was a poor, white-ethnic parish whose aging parishioners had remained despite...
Betrayal by a friend. It is one of the bitterest cups we ever drink. In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks movingly at the Last Supper of a new kind of...
“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...
I was well into my adult years before I knew the church had a day set aside for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a commemoration of King Herod’s murder of all...
Every family celebrates the Christmas season a little differently. Some make a point of chopping down their own Christmas tree, while others find joy in baking...
By Thomas E. Blackburn The article was originally published in the August 1972 issue of U.S. Catholic Every time I start wrestling with the question...
Las Posadas began the night I drove into downtown El Paso, Texas, my Subaru crammed with everything I thought I’d need for a year away from home. I’d been...
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...
Twice a week I hopped out of a taxicab between the Coptic Christian church and the blue-domed mosque in a neighborhood called al-Abdali. From there, I walked...
