Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation. Even so, chances are that at your parish and mine, Mass will be jam-packed. Maybe there’s something about “You are dust and to dust you shall return” that speaks to people in a way that a Mass in Ordinary Time does not. And yet last Ash…
Tag: Lent
When the Good News Seems Grim
If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23 This is a frightening prospect. To be entirely dispossessed of everything that is not Christ, leaning more and more on him, entering every more deeply into the suffering of others: the sick, the…
Stations of the Cross for the Pandemic
I wrote these Stations of the Cross with the Covid Pandemic in mind, as both a way to pray for those suffering but also to connect their suffering, and ours, with that of Christ. Each station recognizes the suffering of Christ at his passion, and connects that with a group that is suffering particularly during…
The Great Letting Go
At some point in my mid-thirties I realized I was holding on a little too tightly. It manifested as an unshakeable anxiety about having control over my life, about what I thought I was supposed to be doing. This eventually led was a very Dante-esque experience: Midway through the journey of my life, I was…
Keeping the Vigil
They didn’t teach me audio engineering or cinematography when I got my Masters in Theology. Maybe they should have, I thought, as lightning flashed through stain glass windows, the transcendent Exsultet echoing through the empty Cathedral. I was desperately attempting to keep a livestream going through a ramshackle conjunction of cameras, cords, blackboxes and an overheating laptop…
A Good Friday Prayer for a Pandemic
Jesus never stopped praying. Even as he hung on a cross, desperately trying to breathe, his lungs filling with fluid, he never stopped praying. In his most desperate moment, he offered his suffering humanity, our suffering humanity, as a prayer to God. But prayer can be hard, especially if we are feeling stressed or overwhelmed….
Flowers are Everywhere
It has become a sort of rallying cry: “Flowers are everywhere!” “There’s a dandelion growing in the sidewalk!” “There’s a purple tulip!” “There’s a white and orange one!” Suddenly my son William is obsessed with flowers, pointing out every one he knows, and given that he’s grown up in a flower shop, he’s fairly adept…
Lent in the Time of Coronavirus
On March 12th I was supposed to be on a plane to Italy, leading a group of travelers through Rome and Tuscany. It’s part of a small travel company I operate that specializes in tours of Italy, and this trip was centered on the art, spirituality, and life of Michelangelo. So for the better part…
Christ in the Desert, Bored Out of His Mind
Our Gospel for this First Sunday of Lent tells us that Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to be tested, where he stayed for forty days and nights, before the Enemy arrived to tempt him. Like the hidden years from his childhood to his baptism, the scriptures tell us nothing about these…
True Joy
This Lenten season is designed to prepare our souls to experience fully the joy of Easter. I can’t think of anyone better to introduce us to this counter-cultural, counter-intuitive fullness of joy than the Poverello, the little Poor One, St. Francis of Assisi. Here’s St. Francis on finding True Joy: One day at Saint Mary’s,…
incarnation is everywhere 