Charles Morris chronicles the first 50 years of America.

"These people have no alternative but to entrust themselves to human smugglers who often treat them as meat," said one human rights worker.

Learning to hear God's call

Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone (left) was installed as the 13th bishop of the Charleston Diocese March 25.

One of the readings for Easter Sunday The Resurrection of the Lord is the account of Cleopas and the unnamed disciple on the road to Emmaus Luke 24 13-35 I love this reading for it is a perfect example of Jesus rsquo loving presence even when we are not aware that he is near that he is with

It wasn rsquo t until I was a Jesuit novice age 28 nbsp that I even knew there was such a thing as an Easter Vigil nbsp In 1989 when I was working in Kingston Jamaica and went to my first Vigil Mass at a Jesuit-run parish mdash with the Paschal candle the singing of the Exsultet the baptism

We nbsp spend most of our lives in Holy Saturday nbsp For the most part our daily lives are not moments of sheer abject terror mdash like Good Friday nbsp Nor are they moments of delirious exaltation mdash like Easter Sunday nbsp Rather we are often in the ldquo middle time rdquo as th

Cambridge MA Here is the third installment in my Triduum exercise in listening to Paramahamsa Yogananda whose reflections on the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper and Crucifixion I sampled for you in the preceding days Like many a preacher I find Easter a rather daunting feast on which to prea

Good Friday is betrayal by a dear friend a part of an inner circle preparation in a long dark night for a coming arrest trial public and painful humiliation repudiation and death on a cross Why is it called Good Friday It doesn rsquo t seem very good At some point most Christians have ha

The Passion can seem so far away nbsp Despite the fact that many of us will listen very carefully to the story of the Passion today the events that happened in 1st-century Palestine can seem unimaginably distant nbsp When I was growing up in suburban Philadelphia it seemed not participatory b

Cambridge MA As indicated in my previous entry several days ago I am offering you three entries this Holy Week in meditation on the mysteries of the Last Supper the death of Jesus and the Resurrection But not my own thoughts rather recognizing that we have so many resources within the Chris

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp What is it like to let Jesus serve you nbsp The answer is in the look on St Peter s face in this my favorite nbsp painting by Ford Madox nbsp Brown of t

Photographer Robert Lisak and Prof Jaime Lara of Yale University s Institute of Sacred Music visited the town of San Pedro Andahuaylillas Peru during Holy Week 2008 to chronicle the rituals and celebration that take place at the ldquo Sistine Chapel of the Americas rdquo a 17th century Jesui

I was going to say that during the Sacred Triduum I would only write a blog post if there were earth-shattering news Of course the triduum celebrates the last bit of genuinely earth-shattering news So let s all move away from our computers except to check in with Whispers now and then for t

The Second Reading for Holy Thursday is 1 Corinthians 11 23-26 In the tradition which Paul received of Jesus rsquo words of institution he relays Jesus rsquo command to do this in remembrance of me when partaking in both the bread and the cup This is my body that is for you Do this in rememb

IIn a recent meeting with Mexican government officials Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attributed the growing violence in the country to aggressive druglords and announced that the United States would stand shoulder to shoulder with Mexico against them nbsp The criminals and kingpins sprea

It is a pity about Michael Gerson I want his articles to be better than they are I want there to be a place in our political dialogue for an articulate conservative evangelical with a strong interest in Catholicism But he always manages to disappoint usually by missing what is abundantly obviou

Cambridge MA In this Holy Week we are of course invited to quiet ourselves down pull back a bit and reflect on the meaning of our lives in light of the death and resurrection of Jesus We are fortunate to have an abundance of aids in this reflection ranging from the Bible and the liturgies o

Walter Cardinal Kasper President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity recently gave talks at Yale Divinity School and St Thomas More Catholic Chapel at Yale in which he talked about the recent developments in interfaith dialogue He said that strong relationships among Catholi

As the president s appearance at ND comes closer and closer and now with some of the volume on the controversy turned down The Anchoress argues that the church not miss nbsp a real teaching moment and adopt a calm and pastoral approach to present its teaching nbsp Amen to calm and pastoral