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Faith in Focus
Jerry Ryan
During the first few years I spent in the choir of St. Mary’s Orthodox Church, I wrestled mightily with the intricacies of Byzantine chant. When I had a couple of other basses surrounding me I could follow along all right, but when I had to hold up the part on my own it was usually a disaster.
Gerald OCollins
A friend of mine who teaches homiletics recently examined and compared dozens of Christmas sermons published by seven major 20th-century theologians. She was happy to report that the divine love figured prominently in those sermons. The seven theologians all converged in proclaiming that the birth o
The Word
John R. Donahue
The Epiphany or Manifestation of Jesus is the Christmas feast among Eastern Christians both Orthodox and Catholic The same readings for all cycles emphasize a number of themes The first reading from the final post-exilic section of Isaiah envisions the nations streaming to a restored Jerusalem
Renee M. LaReau
We sit at the kitchen table in our pajamas, the late morning sun filtering through the windows. The Washington Post lies untouched on the table, along with bagel crumbs and big mugs of tepid, strong coffee. It is New Year’s Eve day, and four of us, our college friendships eight years young now
Film
Richard A. Blake
Frantically searching for ways to postpone sitting down at the keyboard and trying to find something relatively new to say about the most over-analyzed film and social phenomenon of the year, I idly called up my favorite search engine and typed in harrypotter. The monitor blinked once and then came
Books
Robert F. Drinan
The thesis of this book written by a professor of political science at Colgate University is that modern democracy needs God The author who identifies himself as a practicing Catholic asserts that Christianity is weakened by its close alliance with the contemporary version of democracy and huma
Poetry
Mark Jarman

The kingdom of God is within you. –Luke 17:21

 

The kingdom is inside somewhere all right.

Columns
Lorraine V. Murray
I dreamt I was standing at the pearly gates, clutching a handful of coupons. What are those? St. Peter asked. My volunteering coupons, I replied, placing them in his hand. Then I explained how I had earned them: all the times I had pitched in at church answering phones, singing in the choir, volunte
FaithThe Word
John R. Donahue
The Holy Family could well be called the Refugee Family.
Ronald Landfair
On the day after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday several years ago, I sat on my living-room sofa fuming at the television set. My wife entered the room and patiently asked me what news story had caused me such exasperation. I had just watched the national director for the American Red Cross urge
Anonymous
If the church that hosted my first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting had been Catholic, I wouldn’t have gone near it. The religion I had been brought up in made me so angry in those days that I boycotted it in any way I could. But since the church was Presbyterian, I condescended to take a rear sea
Books
Paul Mariani
Eighteen Christmas poems by the late Joseph Brodsky Russian migr American citizen Nobel laureate and our laureate as well Eighteen poems collected and translated from the Russian by some of the best poets writing in English including Seamus Heaney Derek Walcott Richard Wilbur Anthony Hec
Faith in Focus
Dee Jacques Moynihan
Our neighborhood on the west side of San Antonio was an impenetrable Tex-Mex barrioisolated by culture, religion, language and educationuntil Old Doc Stein came along. He was a feisty, stocky man with dark, compassionate eyes, thick lips, wiry white hair, and he spoke massacred Spanish. Ambling into
Editorials
The Editors
Since Sept. 11 not a day has passed without reminders of the tragedy being thrust before us. Grief, loss and mourning remain part of our national consciousness, like a dull ache that sometimes becomes acute. Advent, Christmas and the coming of a new year, the first without lost loved ones, will be a
The Word
John R. Donahue
As the celebration of the Incarnation nears the readings echo with wonder and joy Amid virtual despair about the future of the kingdom Yahweh tells Ahaz to ask for a sign which the king will not do lest he tempt God But Isaiah intervenes with an oracle of salvation Life is affirmed at the doo
Letters
Our readers
Beliefs and DialogueI read with interest and appreciation the article by Patrick J. Ryan, S.J., The Roots of Muslim Anger (11/26). As a Catholic Christian Arab with a fair knowledge of Islam, I appreciate the scholarship Father Ryan devoted to this article. While I believe all his points are valid,
George M. Anderson
Hope is stronger than violence, and I believe that the mystery of God is present in our efforts to work together for peace and economic development, said Francisco Pacho de Roux in October, on receiving an award from the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights in New York City. His words arose fro
Books
Christopher J. Ruddy
It may be imprudentand impudentfor this reviewer who teaches at Benedictine institutions to suggest that readers of a Jesuit journal have much to learn from a Dominican Timothy Radcliffe who recently finished a term as master general of the Dominicans and was rumored as a successor to Cardinal B
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
Behind the cheerful bustle of New York City's Chinatown, with its outdoor stalls filled with exotic fruits and vegetables, lie deep-seated problems that reflect the difficult lives of Chinese immigrants who manage to find their way to lower Manhattan. I had an opportunity to hear of some of thes
Belden C. Lane
A single tree grows on a wilderness hillside in Northern California. Its name is presidio manzanita. Its world population is one. When I stood before a photograph of this tree in an exhibit of endangered species recently, I felt its enormous fragility. Should it die without reproducing itself, presi