Isaias crossed the small parking lot next to the church and approached the rectory. On an open door was written, "Proyecto Guadalupano: a Program of the Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission." In the small office, he sat down opposite Arturo López, the program director, and began to tell h
The most challenging, the most distressing and yet the most strangely consoling book I have read this year is Annie Dillard’s For the Time Being. It is many things: a string of knotty episodes, a litany of loss, a catalogue of catastrophe, a cry for meaning. Crisscrossing the stories of wise r
Despite the strong economy that has been a boon for millions of Americans, many others remain locked in a poverty that includes hunger. All but ignored in the current political debate, this dark reality served as the background of a three-day conference held in Washington, D.C., in late February. Ca
Channel surfing a few months ago, I was mildly astonished to come across a rerun of Davey and Goliath, the Eisenhower-era claymation series produced, as I recall, under the auspices of the Lutheran Church. For those of you who weren’t TV-addicted children in the 1960’s, Davey and Goliath
Lex Orandi, Lex CredendiAlong with many Catholics I was proud of Pope John Paul II’s act of courage and humility in confessing the sins of the church and asking forgiveness. Such an acknowledgment was particularly appropriate in this Lenten season, when the Passion accounts candidly acknowledg
St. Augustine was probably not the first, and he was certainly not the last to remark that even pagans believe that Jesus died. It is only Christians who believe that after death he rose to a new life. The joy that is awakened by this belief in the Resurrection is not supposed to be just a seasonal
A woman is hidden behind the white shower curtain. Judging by the sounds, I assume she’s soaping herself. Today is my first day volunteering at the Gift of Grace, a home where Mother Teresa’s nuns and volunteers care for poor women with AIDS. When I arrived earlier this morning, I asked