The following is a slightly edited version of a column I have written for this month's Dominican Laity newsletter eLumen . Only this y...

The most important assumption to note today is that of the Mother of God into heaven. Among Eastern Christians, that reality is known as the...

The unregenerate Scrooge got and gets a bum rap. Of course he was cruel, selfish, cynical, and unbelieving. But so are all of us, to the e...

Almost every American past puberty knows the old Wendy's hamburger slogan: "Where's the beef?" Used as a metaphor, it summ...

You may thank the Lord that this will not be a marital advice column. There are those who would not hesitate to point out that I am the last...

I got to thinking about this topic by reading two recently posted essays: David Mills' "Spirituality without Spirits" at Firs...

The primary trinity of days in the Christian religion is the Easter Triduum: Holy Thursday evening, centered on the Mass of the Lord's S...

As individual Christians, including and especially as contemporary Catholics, we tend to forget that  it's not about you.  I was reminde...

In a First Thoughts post yesterday, Jody Bottum noted: Comedy Central—the origin of the South Park program that had its references to Mo...

Today's Gospel reading in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is about miraculous healings Jesus did in response to faith-filled reque...

So much has been happening lately in the spheres which interest me that I have hardly known where to begin writing. I'll just start with...

In this year of St. Paul, it's worth noting for the Easter season something he says about the Resurrection: "If Christ be not risen...

Today is a good day to meditate on two kinds of descent into hell: the kind some people undergo by refusing to repent of serious sin, and t...

It is disappointing, if inevitable, that most images of the Sacrament of Reconciliation show a priest sitting in one half of a big dark box ...

This year, I want to greet Ash Wednesday with the observation that Lent is sacramental. I don't mean that the Church ought to make it th...