Culture is the air one breathes; it is the environment in which one’s habits, values, and patterns of thought are engendered. Psychological data has shown that current cultural factors and influences pose major threats to the appropriate d … [Read more...]
Articles
The Fathers We Are Losing
The Crisis at Noon
Priests are leaving active ministry in their middle years, and we have not reckoned with why. This essay offers a partial answer from an unlikely source: the developmental psychology of Maria Montessori, which treats every crisis not as a … [Read more...]
Antioch’s Flesh and Bone: Rereading Scripture Beyond Fundamentalism and Suspicion
Along the dusty banks of the Orontes, in a city where merchants’ voices collided with imperial decrees and parish quarrels, the Antiochene masters learned to read Scripture under pressure. Not the pressure of modern ideology, but the older k … [Read more...]
Catholic Financial Management: Relational, Pastoral, Mission-driven and Synodal
Any reflection on financial management in the Catholic Church in the US could easily focus on policy, on USCCB guidelines, Canon Law or similar matters. My focus here is to make five points about the culture and practice of financial … [Read more...]
Reflections on a Bobblehead
Cleaning out sixty years of my predecessor’s accumulated stuff from my latest rectory was a matter of triage: what could I clean and use, what could I sell on eBay, and what should go in the 40-cubic-yard dumpster I quickly filled to o … [Read more...]
Defanging the Snake: Why Phone Addiction Demands Meaning, Not Mere Rules
In meetings of rectors, formators, and religious superiors, the same concern surfaces repeatedly: How do we regulate candidates’ use of mobile phones and electronic devices? Rules are proposed — designated usage times, restricted internet ac … [Read more...]
You Cannot Love Both God and TikTok
Governing our digital lives is among the greater challenges facing us as a species, as a Church, and as individuals. Because the Bible’s many books were written thousands of years ago, we might make the mistake of thinking that Sacred S … [Read more...]
The Homilies We Need
I have a confession: I have never heard a homily from the pulpit which I remember the next day. Now, granted, my memory is not great, so part of the fault is with me. But I don’t think I’m unique. Part of the problem might be that pre … [Read more...]
Short on Time: A Weekly Preparation Routine for Busy Preachers
Everyone is busy; schedules fill up quickly and priorities change for priests on a near-hourly basis. Sick calls, funerals, Pre-Cana preparation, school talks, meetings, meetings, and more meetings. Deacons and lay catechists … [Read more...]
St. Maria Goretti: A Saint in Need of Revisiting
June 26, 2026 by S. E. Greydanus
Nearly everyone has experienced the principle behind the game of “telephone”: i.e. frequent repetition from one person to another lends itself to distortions. On a larger scale, this means that the most popular people, stories, etc. are oft … [Read more...]
Climbing the Mountain of Carmel
June 26, 2026 by Carolyn Humphreys, OCDS
In the thirteenth century, a small band of lay hermits settled on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Israel. They were former pilgrims, merchants, penitents, and soldiers who wanted to live a simple, quiet life centered on the Gospels and … [Read more...]
Unfolding Grace: Summarizing and Comparing the Natural Law, the Old Law, and the New Law
June 26, 2026 by Brett Adams
Introduction St. Thomas Aquinas, in his summa theologiae, distinguishes three types of law: the Natural Law, the Old Law, and the New Law. While there are more laws than these, these particular laws each present not only truth and law, but … [Read more...]
The Angry Prophet and God’s Hesed
A Psychological Critique of Jonah
June 26, 2026 by James Anderson
Historical questions aside, the book of Jonah lends itself to a plurality of interpretations and resists simple explanations. As with Job, one of the many messages of Jonah is that we do not know how God works.[1. One should recall Isaiah … [Read more...]
Maximizing the Benefits of Christ-Centered Counseling
June 26, 2026 by Patrick F. Cioni
Introduction Christ-centered counseling is a cyclical step-by-step procedure designed to initiate, promote, and maintain positive, healthy change. It holds out hope that gains made in counseling can be retained without serious backsliding. … [Read more...]
Priestly Ministry by Way of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
May 26, 2026 by Fr. Thomas F. Dailey
Clergy today could use a boost. Ministerial demands, coupled with decreasing numbers, can be crippling. Diocesan demographic predictions and parish planning strategies show little relief in sight. It may sound like a diversion (or a … [Read more...]
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