James Martin, S.J.

Doubtless there will be some readers who will find this an inappropriate topic for nbsp the blog of a Catholic magazine nbsp And who will no doubt roll nbsp their eyes nbsp It is hardly a recondite topic nbsp But I have to ask Have you seen the video of the woman called Susan Boyle singing o

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

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

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

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

Margaret Thatcher once quoted Our Lord by saying As Jesus of Nazareth said and I think rightly nbsp nbsp So as Pope Benedict XVI said and I think rightly the Catholic Church needs to use all the methods of the modern media at its disposal to spread the good news nbsp I would add that t

Most priests nbsp would rather do ten baptisms than one wedding nbsp Or maybe two funerals nbsp Why nbsp Weddings are often nbsp overly focused on the incidentals the reception hall the reception food the dress the flowers the color of the groomsmen s tuxes than the um nbsp sacrament

As we hope you ve noticed with our new redesign in January we ve expanded our nbsp culture coverage in the magazine and to that end Father Christiansen has asked me to serve as America s first Culture editor nbsp Does that mean you re going to have to cultivate a British accent