The Key to a Joy-filled Life

Brother David Steindl-Rast November 4, 2019

Joy goes beyond happiness. Joy is the happiness that does not depend on what happens. It springs from gratefulness. When we begin to take things for granted, we get sucked into boredom. Boredom is deadly. Yet, everything within us longs for “life, life in fullness” (John 10:10). The key to life in fullness is gratefulness.

— from the book The Way of Silence: Engaging the Sacred in Daily Life

Film Reviews with Sister Rose

Rose Pacatte, FSP November 1, 2019

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, reviews By the Grace of God, The Peanut Butter Falcon, and The Riot Act.

Resting in Our Limits

Ragan Sutterfield October 31, 2019

There is a restfulness in this acceptance of our limited lives. When we move low, back toward the soil from which we can learn the lessons of our true humanity, we are able to enter a kind of peace. Humility is not about struggle or diminishment but rather is the relief that we are not God, that we are mere creatures. Berry gives voice to this truth in one of his most popular poems, “The Peace of Wild Things”:

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

What Is a Mystic?

Murray Bodo, OFM October 30, 2019

The mystics cultivate awareness. They listen for God’s word; they respond with concrete, often heroic, actions when they hear it. A mystic, then, is one who shows the rest of us who we really are, who we can become, if only we would realize the gift of God that is already within us and respond in our concrete daily lives to God’s great gift of love. The mystic shows us how not to let God’s word return to God empty. The mystic uncovers the mystery, a mystery inside each one of us, and models what it looks like and what it accomplishes.

A Leap of Faith

David Dault, PhD October 30, 2019

Have you ever made a decision based on very little information that will surely affect the rest of your life—as well as the lives of everyone in your family—and which has no assurance of success? At the end of this past summer, my wife and I made a decision like that. We bought a house.

Love Gives Itself Away

Ilia Delio, OSF October 29, 2019

The simplest way to describe God’s poverty and humility is in terms of love. Love gives itself away—this is God’s poverty. Love turns toward the other so it can give itself to the other—this is God’s humility. In the Incarnation, God turns toward us through the Son/Word and gives himself to us as love.… The God whom Francis discovered is a God who shows himself to us in poor and humble fragile human flesh. This is a God who loves us so much as to be reckless in love; a God who throws it all away out of love and never tires of loving.

The Greta Thunberg Effect

Susan Hines-Brigger October 29, 2019

This past September 23, millions of people around the world walked out of their schools and workplaces to demand urgent action on climate change. The protests were scheduled prior to the opening of the United Nations General Assembly and the Climate Action Summit in New York City.

Pedophile Priests Protected

Pat McCloskey, OFM October 29, 2019

My wife and I do not feel comfortable discussing this with our parish priest and hope you can provide some guidance. As cradle Catholics, we find it very difficult to continue in our Catholic faith because of repeated reports of abuse of children by pedophile priests. Despite these reports, there is no definitive action mostly lip service. Pope Francis should declare these behaviors unacceptable and inconsistent with Christ’s teachings.

A Nephew ‘s Coming Out

Pat McCloskey, OFM October 29, 2019

I am the only practicing Catholic in my family of birth and my husband’s. My only nephew may soon “come out ” to our overseas family about his homosexuality and same-sex relationship. We will be visiting his family soon. How do I respond if my nephew asks me directly how I feel about his sexual orientation and same-sex marriage? I want to be true to my faith and still be a loving aunt without appearing to condone his lifestyle.

He will always be your nephew, a man created and loved by God. His “coming out ” does not change that.

Quick Questions and Answers

Pat McCloskey, OFM October 29, 2019

Do Catholics take seriously the corporal work of mercy to visit those in prison? Do Catholic parishes and colleges or universities have this on their radar?

First, students at law schools in some Catholic universities have participated in “innocence projects ” that have led courts to release certain prisoners who did not commit the crime for which they have been found guilty and imprisoned. Some parishes have prison ministry groups.