Memorial of the Cistercian Martyrs of Atlas: The unredeemed ego—also known as the false self—readily co‑opts even spiritual gifts and graces to prop up its fragile and ever‑anxious sense of identity. It treats gifts as possessions, using them to secure worth rather than to serve love. By contrast, the redeemed ego—the self whose true identity […]

All too often holiness is equated simply with overcoming vice and cultivating virtue. And although this is surely central and integral to holiness it is not all that holiness entails. In his image and analogy of the vine and the branches Jesus says that every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it […]

The cry of Jesus on the cross—my God, my God, why have you forsaken me—seems to dispute Jesus’ claim (in today’s gospel) that the Father is always with him and has not left him alone. And while we can only speculate on the inner state of Jesus revealed by that heartfelt cry, it can serve […]

For a person who had been ill for thirty-eight years, the question: Do you want to be well, seems an odd, if not cruel question. Nevertheless, it is the same question that is repeatedly addressed to us, not necessarily because we are physically ill, but because of our spiritually-sick state. This repeated question is necessary […]

As we know, it is a great deal easier to speak of virtue and spiritual ideals than to actually practice or achieve them. However, it signals a still greater rupture between ideals and practice when even talk of such ideals ceases. For, speaking of virtue and holiness—even though we may not live this out—suggests some […]

Although the prophet Micah appeals to the Lord for a return to an earlier period of Israel’s history as in the days when you came from the land of Egypt, this desire is obviously something symbolic and is not a desire to literally return to some earlier period in Israel’s history of a period of […]

Sin’s destructive power to divide, isolate, and alienate us from God, from ourselves, and from one another is vividly illustrated in the rich man who suffers in the flames of the netherworld—utterly alone, with not even a demon to torment him. Strikingly, he does not ask to be freed from the flames or to be […]

Sometimes the simpler the remedy, the harder it is to follow. So many of our interpersonal conflicts, arguments, animosities, and needless sufferings have a simple remedy: Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. Our difficulty in applying this remedy is that it is deceptively simple and in fact requires a complete […]

In exhorting us, not to worry about what we are to eat or what we are to wear Jesus assured us that if we seek first the kingdom, all these other things will be added to us as well. This seeking first the kingdom is reflected in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. The […]

Today’s feast is one on which many consecrated religious, formally or informally, renew their vows and their commitment to ongoing conversion—conversion whose final goal is nothing less than transformation into Christ. The lives and example of Simeon and Anna reveal two indispensable virtues for this transformative journey by which we open ourselves to the fullness […]