Air. We breathe it. We exhale it. It gives us life, and when it leaves us for the last time, we die.

It envelopes us always, but remains invisible. We are seldom aware or conscious of it, but without it, our embodied thinking would soon cease........…  

Oblate Father Ed Ogden once reflected that getting stuck in traffic is a fine opportunity to stand still in solidarity with the poor. His point was profound and simple: Immobilized or slowed by traffic, we are then most like the poor because we, too, have so few choices.......…  

It is rare for the Catholic Church to be praised in the mainstream media recently. The scourge of clergy sexual abuse and the painful response of the church’s leadership in most cases provide an understandable rationale for this trend......…  

Today the church celebrates the Feast of the Visitation of Mary, recalling the event where the mother of Jesus travels to the home of her aging cousin, Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. Parallels abound for these two women: both are pregnant, their pregnancies are essentially impossible......… 

As our senior high school students prepare for their upcoming graduation, their thoughts and memories may begin to turn to the many spaces which defined their experience of high school: The classrooms where they aced tests, debated with teachers, and occasionally took a discreet afternoon nap......… 

This famous prayer of St. Augustine illustrates well the place of the Spirit in each disciple: within the person. Frequently, religious art and imagery depict the Holy Spirit coming to believers from the outside. It is our belief that the Spirit of the living God is placed within us at our baptism and remains with us for the rest of our lives......… 

In the reconciliation room of my church hangs a painting of the “Woman Caught in Adultery” crafted by Brother Mickey McGrath, OSFS. In that depiction the angry crowd stands to the left and the humiliated woman stands to the right. Jesus stands in the middle. Reading the account from John’s Gospel, however, I always get the feeling that the crowd is surrounding her. .....…   

Chapter 4 of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exsultatepresents further connections to the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal. Recalling the definition of holiness as charity, the pope highlights “five great expressions of love for God and neighbor”:.....…  

In the third chapter of his Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis seeks to address the perennial question of what constitutes human happiness what "in the light of the master." He begins by addressing the false dichotomy people often draw between happiness and holiness.....…

Chapter 2 of Pope Francis' third apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exultate, tackles two central challenges to holiness: contemporary gnosticism and contemporary pelagianism. Before addressing them and their intersection with Salesian spirituality, a brief comment on this second section.....…