The Commons

Some people think, it seems, that when Judgment Day calls us to accountability we’ll be “judged” by what we say and how we say it. “Inasmuch as you did,” not said, as our life will speak for itself. Or in the words of Mother Teresa, “The gospel is written on…

This could be offered as a prayer, as you invite people to bow their heads and listen as God is speaking these words to them directly. It is also a powerful way of ending a sermon. I challenge you to hear these words yourself without tears welling up inside (or…

“Faith anchors the moral life in  an awareness of self and responsibility . .. Love structures our awareness of the world and our appreciation of its ordered values . . . Hope focuses our awareness of time on the ‘works prepared before us to walk in’ (Ephesians 2:10).” Oliver O’Donovan,…

Come thou Holy Paraclete, And from they celestial seat Send they light and brilliancy Father of the poor, draw near; Grier of all gifts be here; Come, the soul’s true radiancy Thou of comforters the best, Thou the soul’s most welcome guest, Come in toil refreshingly. In our labour rest…

In Augustine’s Confessions (IV, 12, 19), he connects Mary, mother of Jesus and the church by quoting Isaiah 46:8 where the prophet says “Return to the heart.” Here is the quote: “Christ, our life, came down to us and delivered us from death, killing death itself with the fullness of…

“Eve looks forward to Mary, and her very name ‘Mother of all the living’ (Gen.3:20) is a mysterious presage of the future, for Life itself was born of Mary, whence she  became more fully ‘the Mother of all the living’ . . . Nor can we see the passage ‘I…

The Christian imagination enchants the world with a haunting presence, not that of leprechauns, gnomes, gremlins and ghosts, but the haunting, gracing presence of the Holy Spirit. We need the Christian imagination to kick in because the world’s imagination authors a story-line not formed by kingdom virtues, values, and views.…

Ego Tantrum or Tantum Ergo . . . Whenever I feel like throwing an ego tantrum, I do my best to get to my computer and spend four minutes listening to “Tantum Ergo,” the last two verses of St. Thomas Aquinas’ hymn “Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium” which is often…

God’s Gamble: The risk of love is a risk God took when God created humanity. The creation of humans was God made Vulnerable. In Welsh priest/poet R. S. Thomas’ portrayal of the creation of the world, “Making,” God pauses on the fifth day. Something is still missing. God has created…

“The Kingdom of God cannot be embraced by discursive language, but only hinted at in the lines of poetry, the melody of music, the perspective of art and the curvs of sculpture. It’s a commonsense language of weather, yeast, fishing, food and festivities.” John McCarthy, SJ, Do Monkeys Go To…