The members of Order of Malta or at least its American branches concluded their annual one-week pilgrimage to Lourdes yesterday and your intrepid Jesuit reporter was among them As in the past few years I was as a guest of and chaplain for the Federal Association of the Order which makes
In All Things
Celebrating Israel’s Birthday
The State of Israel celebrates its 60th birthday today All Americans should take a moment today and think about this anniversary and why we too should join the celebration Palestine was stuck in the Middle Ages in 1948 The Ottoman Empire had ruled the area for centuries until its collapse in Wor
Curtains for Clinton
Sen Hillary Clinton s campaign for the presidency had received reprieve after reprieve in New Hampshire Ohio and Pennsylvania Unable to surmount Sen Barack Obama s lead in the delegate count she needed to at least keep the narrative going he can t close the deal she keeps winning races
Jesuit Yoga I
Cambridge MA Several months ago I mentioned that I was teaching a seminar on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali This fundamental yoga text from nearly 2000 years ago is brief — 195 very succinct verses — but it is the reference point for all the later yoga systems I promised to report on the res
Hillary the Fighter
Readers of this blog will know that it would be inaccurate to describe me as a fan of Sen Hillary Rodham Clinton Yet it is impossible not to admire her tenacity the sheer gumption with which she has approached her ever-diminishing odds of being selected as the nominee of the Democratic party her
Russert v. Obama
Was that Tim Russert on Meet the Press yesterday Instead of the usual offering of gotcha questions and decades-old quotes all designed to put the interviewer s prey into a meltdown Russert asked thoughtful persistent questions of Sen Barack Obama and even gave him sufficient time to answer
The Rock of Ages
I have just returned from seeing the rock group Rush perform a more than three-hour concert in Concord California thus marking at least the dozenth time maybe closer to 15th or 20th that I ve seen them live since my first Rush show around 1986 After spending the evening with so many for wh
Gas Tax Craziness
Nobody likes paying the exorbitant price at the pump and both John McCain and Hillary Clinton are trying to cash-in politically on Americans cash-out experience when they fill up They have proposed a tax holiday from the federal gas tax for the summer Clinton offers a windfall profits tax on oi
Interview with Stephen Adly Guirgis
This week on our podcast the playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis author of the The Last Days of Judas Iscariot discusses his new play The Little Flower of East Orange Guirgis talks about moments of grace in his life and the writers who have inspired him Listen here Little Flower starri
Remember John McCain?
Yes Virginia there is a Republican candidate Amidst all the press coverage of Barack Obama s crazy pastor and Hillary Clinton s craven gas tax holiday you can be forgiven for forgetting that John McCain is running for president too But his campaign is taking shape and doing so in ways that
