Jewish identity is complicated, involving overlapping religious, cultural, and ethnic groups. But the practice of Judaism rules out actual endorsement of...
Religion
Essays explaining our faith, including stories about church teaching, Vatican documents, canon law, liturgical theology, and other Catholic topics.
Decades ago, when I was an English major, I imagined myself a poet. This was in part because I won a national poetry contest in high school that guaranteed me...
If I hurt someone I care about, I should admit what I have done and apologize and usually shouldn’t need anybody else there as a mediator. So why do Catholics...
I have a friend in Europe who can barely keep a job. She’s brilliant, well-educated, charming, and loaded with experience in all aspects of her profession. The...
The question occasionally arises from an inquisitive parishioner: “What do priests do all day?” It’s not an unreasonable question from those who only see their...
What are you looking for? Jesus asks this question of his disciples, those who propose to fall in line behind him. It’s a question we might ask more than we do...
How do you wish others well during the festive season: Do you say, “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”? What do you think if someone wishes you a “Good Yule”...
Some years back, I watched a discussion unfold on social media about the devil. A Catholic woman anxiously asked her friends for prayers that could be used to...
I typed the question into the search engine with sincere curiosity: What does the word “O” mean? This wasn’t work avoidance—although I’m a master at that...
Whenever the prophet Malachi pops up at Mass, I think of a dark comedy from 1992 called Death Becomes Her. The former is a bleak prophet with nothing good to...
