She was at the supermarket check-out again today, the woman with the God-smile. You know the sort of smile I mean. Not simply a twitch of the lips, but a light from within that changes a face, making the eyes glow, and turning a mouth into a speechless shape of love. When we see a Read more
Analysis and Comment
The Catholic Church must become more Protestant
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016
Dr. Peter Kreeft is a brilliant theologian, philosopher, and a Evangelical Protestant convert to the Catholic faith. I’ve listened to several of his lectures, read many of his articles, and become a devotee. He’s got a lot of great stuff to say, and he isn’t afraid to say it. His appeal, to me, is that Read more
Pornography proof kids and patron saints
Friday, April 29th, 2016
Lately I’ve been writing about — and hearing heart-wrenching accounts of — people struggling with pornography addiction. It’s rampant in our culture in the West. The deeper I dig into the statistics and the anecdotes, the more I’m realizing that it is very much a cross-cultural issue, and that even as the internet has transcended geographical boundaries Read more
The mercy of shutting up
Friday, April 29th, 2016
Amid the controversy surrounding Pope Francis’s recent apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), one extraordinary section has been all but overlooked. In chapter 4, “Love in Marriage,” the Holy Father offers a moving exegesis of that popular wedding reading, St. Paul’s ode to love from 2 Corinthians. It’s about more than marriage, though; Read more
Julian of Norwich and a life full of love
Tuesday, April 26th, 2016
Growing up in an evangelical Protestant family, I didn’t hear much about the Christian mystics. My religious background tended to equate mysticism with occult practices, overlooking the mystics’ real emphasis: a direct experience of God. Yet, I sensed that the divine was a constant, companionable presence, someone who was simultaneously both within and all around Read more
Pornography and the curse of total sexual freedom
Tuesday, April 26th, 2016
The most recent issue of Time Magazine features a fascinating and deeply troubling article on the prevalence of pornography in our culture. The focus of the piece is on the generation of young men now coming of age, the first generation who grew up with unlimited access to hardcore pornography on the Internet. The statistics Read more
Benedict XVI as the ‘great reformer’?
Friday, April 22nd, 2016
By consensus, while emeritus Pope Benedict XVI was a great teaching pontiff, ecclesiastical governance on his watch often left something to be desired. Space does not permit a full listing of meltdowns and crises, but here are a few highlights: The appointment in 2007, followed by the swift fall from grace, of a new Archbishop Read more
Some much needed empathy for networked teens
Friday, April 22nd, 2016
This is a review of Beyond the Screen: Youth Ministry for the Connected But Alone Generation by Andrew Zirschky (Abingdon 2015). When it comes to teenagers and social media, many of the headlines and much of the prevailing conventional wisdom—including within our churches—is that social media is a danger and a threat. This not only Read more
Hillary Clinton is right: you can be a feminist and pro-life
Tuesday, April 19th, 2016
Last week, Daily Life published an article by Ruby Hamad entitled, “Hillary Clinton is wrong: You cannot be a feminist and ‘pro-life’.” I beg to differ. I originally sent this piece to Daily Life in the hope of engaging with Hamad on this important women’s issue, but the response I received was: “unfortunately it’s not Read more
Who are you, and what have you done with my son?
Tuesday, April 19th, 2016
One of the most daunting things about sending our boy to boarding school was that, for the first six weeks, aside from handwritten letters, we weren’t allowed to have any contact with him. In the pre-email, pre-free calling era, this would have been fairly standard. Back in the day, boarding school parents didn’t have much choice Read more