One Story at a Time
Different stories are here at Notre Dame. It’s time to find them.
September 2017
Our Baptism in Ordinary Time
"Jesus answered, and said to him: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (Jn 3:3). We, the baptized, have been born anew. This can only sound routine if we have thoroughly domesticated our...
Church Life is the Heart of the Catholic Imagination
Church life must once again become the heart of the Catholic imagination, but the onus of avoiding beauty’s revenge is not entirely upon the artists.
Don’t Panic About Nones Who Stop Believing
Sooner or later—probably sooner rather than later these days—children stop believing in Santa Claus. My younger brother was an exception to this rule, although to be fair there were a lot more cultural supports for Santa Clau...
The Body in Early Monasticism
If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” It was with the inspiration of this Gospel passage that St. Antony the Great took off to the deserts of Egypt to begi...
The Catholic Imagination is Ecclesial (Or It's Not Really Catholic)
In two previous articles, Artur Rosman, the Editor-in-Chief of Church Life, has advanced a proposal for what constitutes the Catholic imagination. According to Rosman, the Catholic imagination is often employed in…
Friendship with the Beloved Disciple as Type in a Theology of Friendship
In the Fourth Gospel, the nameless character is introduced at the Last Supper as “the one whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23). He is explicitly named again under the Cross (John 19:26), at the empty tomb (John 20:2), and post-resu...
Friendship with God is the Basis for All Friendships
The imagery of friendship is present in the first half of John’s narrative, but it comes into sharpest focus in the second half of the Gospel, particularly during the Last Supper, when Jesus refers to his disciples as “friend...
Human Need in Game of Thrones and the Word of God
Keep this in mind, dear brothers and sisters. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for a person’s anger does not fulfill God’s justice. Strip away all that is filthy, every vicious excess. Humbly ...
An Enduring Basis for Friendship as Taught by Jesus in the Gospel of John
Coming to South Bend in the Summer of 2016 from the Maltese islands, a little more than rocks in the Mediterranean, I marveled at the vast expanses of the Midwest and its array of tall, verdant trees. My daily route from the Notre Dame c...
Reading Recommendations from the Catholic Imagination Conference
I would like to wrap up my reflections about Fordham's Catholic Imagination Conference, which are part of Church Life Journal's discussion of what the "Catholic…
The Dramatic Double Vision of the Catholic Imagination
For the Catholic imagination, the world is fallen but redeemable. It is not parked firmly in either heaven or hell.
The Single Most Important Thing I Noticed at the Fordham Catholic Imagination Conference
As I mentioned previously in the piece Things I Received at the Fordham Catholic Imagination Conference, at the end of April I was given the opportunity to attend the 2nd…
Jesus and the Old Testament
The Word of God grows its roots in the heart the more one shares it with others. That is why one of the surest ways of growing in knowledge and love for the Scriptures is to teach them to others, an opportunity I had for the first time (...
Using Metaphors to Teach Prayer
Scriptures pulse with metaphorical phrases and images (“The Lord is my shepherd . . .”). Jesus’s description of the Kingdom of God is a metaphor. The National Directory for Catechesis [NDC] urges catechists to recognize...
Restoring Sacramental Magic
This summer, I attended the biennial congress in Leuven, Belgium of Societas Liturgica, an ecumenical gathering of liturgical historians, theologians, and musicians from throughout the world. The congress’ theme…
Artificial Wombs and the Intellectual Tasks of Building Cultures of Life
When Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI met with artists in the Sistine chapel in 2009, he noted that “an essential function of genuine beauty, as emphasized by Plato, is that it gives man a healthy 'shock,' it draws him out of himself, wr...