Lent can make you appreciate the length of a lived-out 40: Christ's 40 day fast, Noah's 40 day float trip, Israel's 40 days of wilderness wandering. Forty days takes discipline and desire, and it helps to know going in that there will come a point where you might just want to quit. I've found it … Continue reading Brother’s Keeper: A Playlist for Your Lent
One of my favorite moments in The Chronicles of Narnia occurs in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when Aslan, the golden-lion Christ figure, breathes life into creatures who had been turned to stone by the White Witch. Having released the statue-captives from bondage, Aslan immediately prepares them for battle: The stone lion Aslan … Continue reading Aslan, Ashes and Jonah: the Incredible Opportunity of a Lenten Prophetic Witness
"Most educated people are not religious," a friend remarked to me the other day when the subject of faith came up in conversation. What troubled me most about his comment was its case-closed lack of curiosity about the transcendent realm. Whatever his source for adopting such a stance, if this bright young man allows the … Continue reading Tracking the Transcendent: Four Physicists Open to Its Possibilities
Science, faith and love: each a mystery worthy of a human mind's complete preoccupation. Their interplay is enchanting in Galileo's Daughter, a historical memoir masterfully woven by former New York Times science writer Dava Sobel. I've owned the book since it was first published but it remained on my shelf until last summer, when keeping a … Continue reading Galileo’s Daughter Meets God and the Astronomers: When Faith and Science Confront Infinite Mystery
The anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade provides a yearly opportunity to consider the aftermath of the landmark Supreme Court decision. The court's ruling has made a political battleground of human life's earliest stages. Abortion is the most intimate of issues, piercing the into heart of our deepest questions concerning freedom, … Continue reading When Defending the Right to Life, Choose Beauty. Choose Love.
"I haven't read many books," the young literature professor confided to his chatty, title-dropping students at a writer's workshop I once attended. "But the books I have read, I've read well." His gentle admission stayed with me. I'm a booklover, as I suspect you are if you're reading this, and perhaps your anxiety about not … Continue reading Boost Your Reading Life this Year with these Five Tips
Rarely do I begin a contemporary book and feel it's paid for itself before the end of the first chapter. But I've begun 2019's reading year wth Karen Swallow Prior's On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books and I'm feeling grateful and inspired. My college major was English and when I finished, I spent ten happy years teaching communication … Continue reading Happy New Year! A Planner and a Playlist for the Road Ahead
The story of theBirth is read, theBabe placed in theManger.Smiling on theMother-girl, who gaveHim to a fallen world,I ask if I might hold herSon, her littleOne, theSavior. She gives a graciousYes. It's ChristmasEve. Cradle His head and place His body on your Breast. He is a Perfect littleLamb, atRest in theCrook Of my own arm. … Continue reading Conversion at the Crèche: A Poem for the Unfinished Soul
One of the songs that rocked my world, changed my thinking and opened my heart is Jackson Browne's "The Rebel Jesus." But the first thing it did was upset me. Decades ago, driving in the dark with the radio on, I was drawn in by the tune's driving rhythm and lilting violin. I delighted in … Continue reading Add a Splash of Sobriety to Your Christmas Playlist with These Six Songs
"All too late, experience has taught me that we should not evaluate people by their vices but, on the contrary, by what they have kept intact and pure, by what there is still left in them of childhood, however deep we have to search for it." I discovered this quote from French novelist George Bernanos … Continue reading Graham Greene Reminds Us That Hate Is a Failure of Imagination
