Looking for a good read? I recommend Brendan Hodge’s new work, If You Can Get It (Ignatius Press). If You Can Get It is a well written, engaging novel that intelligently explores living meaningfully in today’s superficial world. An educated Catholic friend recommended it to me. The title lodged Gershwin’s song in my head, so I picked up the book […]
General
Molten Glass
This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is by John Darretta. Molten Glass Soft colors slowly shift along the ancient chancel wall, trails of light beaming through a tinted window at my back, as from without, above the whir of traffic and stir of life, burning sun pierces the glass, suffusing hues in trails of light, streaming them […]
The Real Stuff of Holiness
As we continue to move in unknown spaces and times of uncertainty, REMEMBER your blessings and use your TIME well. Rest in the knowledge of God’s faithfulness. Be the saint you are called to be. Our world needs saints today. Our world needs you. In my book, time is an elusive thing. So is the memory. Both are hard to […]
Maestro
This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is by Mary Springer. Maestro The first hint of daybreak, and the musician, perched in his tree, tentatively tunes up his instrument and emits a lone note, short and sweet, like the “ping!” of a silver triangle, soft at first, but following the sheet music he repeats the note over and over, […]
The Gift I Want to Give Back
I’m a dry-eyed gal most of the time, and I have always prided myself on that trait. Then I started going to Mass. I certainly didn’t mean to turn into a blubbering mess. At the time, I was a tough know-it-all college graduate, and I was only there because this good-looking Prince Charming of mine insisted that he had to […]
Visitation
This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is by Stephen Pohl. Visitation Barely a woman, sown with the one seed and first fruit of the tree of life, bearing death’s own destruction, she strides Judah’s hills to one thought barren now late in season ripe with leaping life crying out wild joy. Originally published in Pilgrim. Stephen Pohl writes […]
All Souls Day and Prayers for the Dead
I’ll never forget that bleak January day when my father died. It was very hard to believe in the resurrection as I watched the undertakers carry away his lifeless corpse in a body bag. But imagine this scene. You are an unborn child who has lived in cozy but cramped quarters with your twin for nine months. But now you […]
Whose Rights? The Paradox of Moral Relativism
Whose rights are protected in a relativistic culture? It is precisely on this point that relativistic societies face a serious dilemma: How does a community arbitrate various individuals’ competing interests? There is much rhetoric in our modern world about protecting human rights and every individual’s freedom, but what if one person or group wants to do something that is directly […]
Patience—A Beautiful Fruit
Patience. This simple word can evoke such a variety of responses! “It’s impossible to practice, I simply get so annoyed.” Take a moment and examine what our first thoughts are when you hear the word PATIENCE. Was it a negative thought? Often this virtue can bring with it difficult emotions. And when those are our reactions, the desire to become […]