Don’t let comparison steal your joy Comparison is toxic. God lives in moments of bliss and misery. If I ask you to imagine the middle child of the Brady Bunch—Jan—shaking her head and lamenting “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia,” can you picture her knitted forehead, clenched fists, and narrow shoulders shuddering with a sigh as she sputters […]
The pandemic proved basic income works in the U.S. Here’s how to answer Pope Francis’ call to build back better. In the early months of the COVID-19 crisis, more than 1,200 economists from around the world urged governments in an open letter to deploy an emergency universal basic income (UBI), a weekly or monthly no-strings-attached, […]
How the Polish Madonna became Haiti’s national protector Our Lady of Czestochowa’s three scars help tell her story of perseverance and love. Our Lady of Częstochowa is striking in many ways, but the scars on her right cheek make her truly unique. They are battle scars that the Black Madonna suffered for the Polish and […]
After a year online, it’s time to reclaim true communion 3 ways to address the crisis of loneliness. For many, 2021 has been a year of emerging from the unexpected conditions of the pandemic. Nearly everyone has a vivid experience of reconnecting, of taking delight in seeing people and interacting with them in more normal […]
4 ways to bring parish ministry to the digital world These best practices will help you build parish community online and in-person. In this “new” world, where so much of our spiritual lives have had to move online, we’ve been powerfully reminded how much we need one another and how significant it is to gather […]
‘The Underground Railroad’ blends truth and magical realism Amazon Prime’s ‘The Underground Railroad’ showcases the ongoing struggle for freedom. Moonlight director Barry Jenkins’ Amazon Prime series The Underground Railroad, adapted from Colson Whitehead’s 2016 novel, is a 10-part mind-bending, gut-wrenching, heartbreaking saga of love and death and freedom rooted in the hard reality of American slavery. By […]
Professor Ann Garrido shares conscientious media use tips Catholics are called to live out their faith online. Do you behave online in a way consistent with your Catholic faith? This is the question that professor of homiletics Ann Garrido wants us to ask ourselves. In fact, she believes that our behavior on social media is […]
Why you should pray at a monk’s pace Take up Mary’s Magnificat and pray for a new creation. Praying the Magnificat with monks can be a jarring experience. Most parish communities pray at a pace more in line with an auctioneer—quick and efficient. But the monastic rhythm savors silence. An occasional gust of wind rattles […]
It’s time to wrestle with church teaching on sex. Here’s how. The Amoris Laetitia Family Year marks a good opportunity for Catholics to reconsider how we talk about sex and family life. “There’s a whole host of changing issues around what constitutes a family, and I think the Catholic Church brings a lot to that […]
Catholics clicked with online ministry. Will we keep it up? Parishes got more tech-savvy during the pandemic and it led to connected communities of faith. As COVID-19 cases rose rapidly in March 2020, dioceses around the United States responded by closing church doors to keep their communities safe. For many Catholics, the lack of in-person […]