Happy Ash Wednesday As I mentioned in an Of Many Things column a few years ago an in an NPR piece my Lenten sacrifices come to me from a Jewish friend named Rob with whom I roomed in college and his family At the time my mostly Jewish friends meaning that most of my friends were Jewish n

The paradoxes of Ash Wednesday

Cambridge MA Just after Christmas I splurged on-line searching out at used book sites the seven volumes of Hans Urs von Balthasar rsquo s Glory of the Lord his wonderful and extensive reflection on the aesthetic element in our theological and spiritual knowledge our apprehension of the beautifu

George W Bush leaves office with some of the lowest approval numbers since the advent of modern polling Of course the first president to achieve historic lows when polling first began Harry S Truman has been treated far more kindly by history Will the same happen to George W Bush For the ne

In the last installment of our Advent and Christmas video series Fr Jim Martin reflects on the Feast of the Three Kings Tim Reidy

Bing, Bowie and that catchy Christmas carol

I have determined to spend the last week of Advent and the first week of Christmas meditating and reflecting on Edward Hicks rsquo The Peaceable Kingdom Hicks a Pennsylvania Quaker 1780-1849 was an autodidact as a painter although later in life he trained apprentices including the importan

The Holy Father rsquo s Ecology of Man speech has garnered a great deal of attention because one sentence in a very long speech made reference to the ways in which human sexuality falls short of the Gospel ideals What rsquo s often expressed and understood with the term lsquo gender rsquo is

Fourth in a series for Advent and Christmas

Pardon my lord I am the woman who stood near you praying to the Lord I prayed for this child And the Lord granted my request Now I in turn give him to the Lord As long as he lives he shall be dedicated to the Lord