If you picture a dark-winged figure tempting Jesus in the desert, you reduce the real power of evil. Why? Because you have removed the devil’s greatest advantage: the darkness of confusion.
Lent
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
A Jesuit’s Lenten pilgrimage through the station churches of Rome
If all the church’s worship should be thought of as a journey, Lent involves achieving platinum frequent flyer status.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
What Catholic leaders should give up for Lent this year
With the beginning of Lent, we are all called to focus on one of the spiritual aspects of the sex abuse crisis that underpins all the others: namely, the tragic failure to see.
Posted inFaith, The Good Word
Ash Wednesday tells us it’s never too late to change your life
Life does not have to be this way. You don’t have to be this way. You can begin again. All that you require has been here all along. You need only return to the mystery of your own baptism.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
A Jesuit guide to Lent
Reflections on the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting and almsgiving
Posted inFaith, Lent Reflections
Repenting in the age of iPhones and instant gratification
Lent is the moment — or 40 days of moments — for us to turn away from our constant and public self-curating and turn towards God.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Sin and ash: On our collective guilt and the need for reconciliation
Even the holiest people are complicit in social sin; we benefit from injustices that we do not control. Yet we still have the freedom to seek God’s grace.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
I fasted on only bread and juice for Lent. This is what I learned.
Fasting always sounds like a brilliant idea before the consequences hit home. Having lost some control over my bowel movements, I felt vulnerable and fragile. I was afraid. Was it really worth it? Would I make it the full 40 days?
Posted inFaith, Last Take
Here’s why Catholics are called to think about death—daily
The practice of remembering death may sound grim, but not so long ago, it was considered an essential part of the Christian tradition.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Lenten penitence and our reckoning with gun violence
The March for Our Lives, which happened at the outset of Holy Week, told Americans it is time to face the deep sin of favoring guns over human life.