Despite being one of the most influential Christian documents (aside from the Sacred Scriptures), Saint Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries is anything but a precise and clear set of rules, regulating daily monastic life, and leading to holiness. Again and again, Saint Benedict seems to present noble spiritual ideals only to enumerate instances when these ideals […]

Beatification and canonization ceremonies are occasions for joy and jubilation. Saints serve an important function in our lives—not only by their intercession on our behalf, but also by the inspiration of their exemplary lives. Yet, although we admire, love, and honor, the saints, we can be reluctant to emulate them. Placing saints on an exalted […]

Twelfth Sunday, Year A: Jeremiah 20:10-13; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-33      Jesus teaching the Twelve to fear no one, could seem addressed directly to us and our times. I wonder whether the fears that fuel our reactions and shape our mishaps, which forge our crimes, are ever acknowledged and owned. As I listen to the […]

Today’s great feast of Corpus Christi feels something like a return to the Paschal Triduum and the Maundy Thursday celebration of the institution of the Eucharist. As Catholics, the Eucharist lies at the center of our spiritual lives because it is the means par excellence by which we are sanctified and, ultimately, divinized. As such […]

      We celebrate the Trinity in the liturgy not as a recollection of some past event but as the matrix of all that we celebrate. This Solemnity reminds me that all our liturgical celebrations are not pageants evoking incidents past and gone but are encounters with the deepest realities, still unfolding, still defining our destinies. […]

We have all had those sad and painful moments at airports, train stations, or before the car pulls out of the driveway carrying a loved one away from us. Saint Luke doesn’t make clear whether this apparent final parting of the Risen Christ from his gathered disciples was an occasion of sadness, perplexity, or dread. […]

As we proceed through the Easter Season, the Holy Spirit emerges more and more in the readings, and the Gospels have returned to Saint John’s account of the Last Supper. It’s not that there are too few accounts of the Lord’s Resurrection; rather it’s the circular nature of the liturgy. I suspect that is foreign […]

Today’s Responsorial Psalm is arguably one of the most beloved and widely quoted text of scripture. The fact that this 23rd Psalm is used at joyful celebrations as well as within the contexts of sorrow and tragedy, witnesses to its breadth and depth. For monks it has a special relevance since it speaks to every […]

Why doesn’t Jesus just tell these disciples from the start who he is and that he’s been raised from the dead?     I believe it’s very consistent for the man who teaches with parables and genuinely respects the people he teaches, to begin with their experience; he takes an indirect, but effective approach. Just as […]

There’s a detail in today’s Gospel that repeatedly strikes me—and puzzles me. It’s what Peter sees in the empty tomb: the burial cloths…and the cloth that had covered [Jesus’] head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. This detail isn’t necessary to the narrative. And who had neatly rolled up […]