One of nbsp the readings nbsp which can be used for the Feast of St Ignatius Loyola is Luke 14 26-33 nbsp In these words to a crowd Jesus speaks of what in the first century was called nbsp hatred nbsp In his nbsp teaching Jesus mentions a series of objects to be hated if one is to be his di

Tomorrow July 31 nbsp or today depending on when you re reading this is the Feast of St Ignatius Loyola founder of the Society of Jesus aka the Jesuits nbsp To nbsp celebrate the day here is a favorite passage from his Autobiography which marks not only the beginning of the saint s convers

We know from several sources that the ancient Greeks had a tradition of giving a meal to those who were about to set out on a journey Before long the gift of the meal extended to other gifts necessary for travel clothes food and blankets In Greece this custom came to be called the ephodion In

I can t figure out if this is a blessing or a curse nbsp A computerized Rosary the Rosary Companion nbsp which has the mysteries and even Hail Marys and Our Fathers spoken aloud is now available nbsp On the one hand it nbsp may be nbsp a boon for the lonely for nbsp those nbsp for whom ag

How long O Lord asks the psalmist Just when you want to applaud the compromise efforts in the House and Senate aiming to reduce the cost of the health care overhaul acknowledging the justifiable concern of some on the right that it is too pricey you see these two headlines across the top of

nbsp It s always pleasant business to report good news from the Catholic publishing scene nbsp Actually good news from a surprising source nbsp Last year Orbis Books full disclosure Robert Ellsberg the publisher is a friend and Orbis published one of my books published a book by Jim Dou

Isn t your guardian angel nbsp supposed to guard you You remember the old prayer nbsp Angel of God my guardian dear to whom God s love commits me here ever this day be at my side to light and guard rule and guide nbsp Light and guard nbsp Well maybe not nbsp Or at least maybe

Sen Lindsey Graham R-SC was the only Republican on the Judiciary Committee to vote in favor of confirming Sonia Sotomayor as the next justice of the United States Supreme Court Graham said that while he would not have nominated Sotomayor he believes that presidents are entitled to their choices

You nbsp thought I was going to castigate The New Yorker again didn t you nbsp Wrong nbsp As I mentioned when I disagreed with Paul Rudnick s piece on nuns I usually love TNY nbsp Viz this week s issue has a nbsp top-flight piece by Joan Acocella who wrote on the best articles I ve ever re

Health Care reform which is as much about insurance reform as health care reform is facing the hard choice now specifically how to pay for it This is also where scare tactics from those with vested interests in the status quo begin to work like acid eating away at the moral imperative for refo

Several years ago a Jesuit in our community brought back from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a print of a painting by an artist of whom I had never heard James Ensor nbsp The painting was among his most famous works Christ s Entry into Brussels above nbsp It was unlike anything I had

Wednesday night I have to cram two thousand years of Church History into a two hour presentation for the RCIA group at my parish This requires doing enormous violence to the historical record leaving out important qualifications and focusing only on the main themes As a historian by training I

The Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola the founder of the Jesuits is coming up--on July 31 In preparation for that day what should or could you do Well St Ignatius would probably be happy if you went to Mass on that day spent an hour in prayer and did some good work for the poor But rather

nbsp nbsp nbsp My dad died on the Fourth of July Tired of his losing battle against congestive heart failure and kidney failure he had decided on July 2 to stop his thrice weekly dialysis treatments The hospice people came to the house and set him up with a hospital bed a sweet and caring nu

The letter to the Ephesians devotes much of its content to establishing the unity of both Jew and Greek in the body of Christ the dividing wall has been torn down between us familial identity we are all children of God adopted through Christ into this one family and the new heavenly citizensh

Race remains an issue that cuts through American culture and society like a scythe The arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr has captured the imagination of the country and it is not difficult to see why The story only works because Gates is black and the arresting officer was white

The water stoup at the entrance to my parish church has been removed Our priest will not give Communion on the tongue only in the hand And we no longer shake hands to give the peace but put our hands together bow slightly and make smiling Indian gestures to each other nbsp It is not trendy l

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is simply wrong when he states as he did the other day that decisions about whether or not to cover abortions with federally funded tax dollars should be left to medical experts in the field The issue here is not a medical issue but a political one Will

Only days after the the Episcopal Church TEC at Anaheim Calif defied the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lambeth Conference by agreeing to resume gay blessings and consecrations of actively gay bishops -- read MSW here -- comes news that 34 American bishops have defied the defiers The rebels

When The Da Vinci Code exploded onto the literary sic scene it created a secondary cottage industry Catholic and other Christian scholars who responded to it either in Parish halls or in short book-length refutations See a nice online refutation from my colleague David Landry I was a part of