The sacrament of confession has seen profound changes through the centuries It began with sinners confessing grave sins in front of the bishop and the assembled congregation and then often receiving a life-time of penance During the Middle Ages confession metamorphosed into spiritual direction f

I was given as a gift a copy of Michael Casey s Fully Human Fully Divine Ligouri Press 2004 by someone whom I meet with regularly in spiritual direction He claimed he found the book a remarkable resource for his own prayer and reflection Casey a Trappist monk in Tarrawara Australia i

Since 2007 I have blogged at America Magazine rsquo s ldquo The Good Word rdquo and have enjoyed the practice and habit of blogging immensely ldquo The Good Word rdquo gave me the freedom to write on the topics and passages on which I saw fit and significantly gave me a built in audience sin

Garrison Keillor rsquo s A Christmas Blizzard lies within the tradition of Charles Dickens rsquo s A Christmas Carol the metamorphosis is something of a miracle nbsp Here rsquo s how its protagonist James Sparrow a wealthy Chicago CEO learns that he will be spending Christmas a holiday he rea

As celebrity memoirs go Diane Keaton rsquo s Then Again is unique for three reasons It rsquo s reflective it was actually written by her and it gives voice to not one but two women Diane and her mother Dorothy Keaton explains how it is that we hear two voices in her biography nbsp While Di

In his new novel Lost Memory of Skin Russell Banks wants to disturb us and with a disturbing subject sex offenders No attempt is made to exculpate these men but Russell does want his readers to do what many in society today refuse to do He wants us to see these offenders as men mdash failed s