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1. Our Baptism in Ordinary Time

   September 28, 2017 | Bo Bonner

   "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...

2. Church Life is the Heart of the Catholic Imagination

   September 27, 2017 | Artur Sebastian Rosman

   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.

3. Don’t Panic About Nones Who Stop Believing

   September 26, 2017 | Dave Cushing

   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...

   

4. The Body in Early Monasticism

   September 25, 2017 | Stephen Adubato

   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...

5. The Catholic Imagination is Ecclesial (Or It's Not Really Catholic)

   September 22, 2017 | Timothy P. O’Malley

   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…

6. Friendship with the Beloved Disciple as Type in a Theology of Friendship

   September 21, 2017 | Jonathan Sammut

   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...

7. Friendship with God is the Basis for All Friendships

   September 20, 2017 | Jonathan Sammut

   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...

   

8. Human Need in Game of Thrones and the Word of God

   September 19, 2017 | Eric T. Styles

   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 ...

9. An Enduring Basis for Friendship as Taught by Jesus in the Gospel of John

   September 18, 2017 | Jonathan Sammut

   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...

10. Reading Recommendations from the Catholic Imagination Conference

    September 15, 2017 | Madeline Infantine

    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…

11. The Dramatic Double Vision of the Catholic Imagination

    September 14, 2017 | Artur Sebastian Rosman

    For the Catholic imagination, the world is fallen but redeemable. It is not parked firmly in either heaven or hell.

12. The Single Most Important Thing I Noticed at the Fordham Catholic Imagination Conference

    September 13, 2017 | Madeline Infantine

    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…

13. Jesus and the Old Testament

    September 12, 2017 | Brian Pedraza

    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 (...

14. Using Metaphors to Teach Prayer

    September 07, 2017 | Ronald K. Bullis

    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...

    

15. Restoring Sacramental Magic

    September 06, 2017 | Timothy P. O’Malley

    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…

    

16. Artificial Wombs and the Intellectual Tasks of Building Cultures of Life

    September 05, 2017 | Jessica Keating Floyd

    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...

17. Things I Received at the Fordham Catholic Imagination Conference

    August 31, 2017 | Madeline Infantine

    When I received this treasure of practical writing and reading advice I also received a deeper awareness of God at work.

18. The Confused Catholic Imagination

    August 30, 2017 | Artur Sebastian Rosman

    It is commonplace to assume that the imagination is opposed to reality. This is not the prevailing understanding of the imagination in contemporary theory and theology. Let’s start with the following classic rock lyrics to clarify ...

19. A Memory of Peace

    August 29, 2017 | Tom Eggleston

    Millions of people converged on Krakow, Poland about a year ago. While among them I gained the ability to imagine a world at peace. I can now imagine global peace. I also know that the Church has something to teach the world about it. In...

20. Agrarian Insights on Ecological Conversion

    August 28, 2017 | Brian Kennedy, C.S.C.

    Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ posed a tremendous challenge for the Church and the entire world. Although the encyclical letter was seen widely as an intervention on climate change negotiations, it in fact offered much more ...