You ember-eating, living thuribles coughing a smoke heavy and holy into the face of a wilderness that turns away with twisted smile, you aren’t nearly as alone as the cold and failure would beat you into believing. There are many…
The celebration of the Birth of Mary seems to be eminently logical, as it is nine months after December 8, the commemoration of the day Mary was conceived by Saints Anne and Joachim. There is one slight problem, since the…
In the history of famous Christian conversions, that of St. Augustine stands second only to St. Paul’s in stature. In both cases, Christianity would have looked very different today had either one of these men not turned off the path…
To make a courageous choice that leads to personal loss is difficult. Most of us choose self-protection over self sacrifice. To make such a choice when that loss is one’s very life is beyond difficult. But, as Christians, we are…
Suffering is something that we seem to want to avoid at all costs. These words of a saint who has been honoured through the ages, remind us that love comes with suffering. This is a humble call to faith that…
On the feast of a saint like Dominic, the founder of all things Dominican, it can be difficult to see a model for our lives – legendary saints like this can stare at us more like an accusation than an…
Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) was a man led by the Spirit into many places he never thought he would have gone. In the song “Loyola,” I try to capture a little of the spirit of this Spirit-filled man. Ignatius was…
If you wear the lauded Iron Ring of the engineer on your little finger, you have St. Martha to thank… or rather St. Martha via the poet Rudyard Kipling. In 1922, a group of senior engineers decided to develop an…
As a woman, I have always been inspired and fascinated by Mary Magdalene. When we consider Mary Magdalene as a model of faith and courage, the assumptions and interpretations of her place in the gospels makes her a saint for our…
Everywhere you go in Rome, when you find Saint Peter or Paul, you always find the other guy hanging around. In front of Saint Peter’s on the Vatican – there was Paul, in the basilica of Saint Paul outside the…