The belief that we are created in the image of God does not mean that he has brown hair, blue eyes, or the body of a rugby player. It is the ability to reason, writes Peter Kasko. We are creatures of habit, and as such, we sometimes operate on autopilot. What I mean is, we…
What’s the point of all these penances? Well, in fact, they’re pointless – on their own, that is! With faith, however, all our Lent penances acquire a special power. Why do Christians fast? The name gives it away: we fast because Christ fasted. When you fast with faith, you are really, spiritually with Christ in…
Normally none of us likes feeling sad, heavy, or depressed. Generally, we prefer sunshine to darkness, light-heartedness to melancholy. That’s why we tend to do everything we can to distract ourselves from melancholy, to keep heaviness and sadness at bay. Mostly, we run from feelings that sadden or frighten us. For the most part, we…
You may still remember, Dear Reader, the formula you were taught while preparing yourself for the First Holy Confession. Although it’s been a long time since that day, I still clearly remember mine: “My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good,…
Q: I am a longstanding vegan, so when Lent comes each year there’s nothing for me to skip; no meat is already my regular routine. But at age 70, and even if I wasn’t vegan, is it true that seniors are no longer bound by Lenten fasting and abstinence requirements? A: The short answer is…
Jos 5:9a, 10-12 Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7 2 Cor 5:17-21 Lk 15:1-3, 11-32 We usually forget about the running. When we consider this Sunday’s scripture and the heart-stopping story of the prodigal son, we tend to overlook or just brush aside this extraordinary detail. We shouldn’t. As Luke describes it in the Gospel: “While he…
I was raised a Roman Catholic and essentially inhaled the religious ethos of Roman Catholicism. I went to the seminary, earned theological degrees, and taught theology at a graduate level for several years before I ever started making a distinction between ‘Jesus’ and ‘Christ’. For me, they were always one and the same thing, Jesus…
There are times when our world unravels. Who hasn’t had the feeling? “I’m falling apart! This is beyond me! My heart is broken! I feel betrayed by everything! Nothing makes sense anymore! Life is upside down!” Jesus had a cosmic image for this. In the Gospels, he talks about how the world as we experience…
Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14 Philippians 3:17 – 4:1 or Philippians 3:20 – 4:1 Luke 9:28b-36 This Sunday’s readings seem to be all about wonder – in Genesis, we hear about a sky filled with countless stars, and then in Luke, we learn of Christ’s radiant transfiguration on a mountaintop. There…
Several years ago, a friend of mine made a very unromantic type of marriage proposal to his fiancé. He was in his mid-forties and had suffered several disillusioning heartbreaks, some of which by his own admission were his fault, the result of feelings shifting unexpectedly on his part. Now, in mid-life, struggling not to be…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Fr Dominik Domagala