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September 2022

September 05, 2022

What Does the Lord Require of Us? A Labor Day Reflection

There are a couple of sayings attributed to Jesus that Christians often use when attempting...

September 01, 2022

Abortion and Faith Discussions: Begin How You Want It To End

I wrote this essay while I was on retreat in early July but, for reasons...

August 2022

August 30, 2022

It Is “The Best of Times” Once Again

Literary phrases for the beginning of a new academic year abound, such as Dickens' "It...

August 27, 2022

What the Wounds on Jesus’ Resurrected Body Tell Us

I consider myself to be well informed and well read, but every once in a...

August 20, 2022

Something More Powerful than Our Virtues

One of the habits that having a puppy in the house for the past ten...

August 18, 2022

Die Before You Die

For many, the raising of Lazarus is Jesus' signature miracle, even though it is only...

August 11, 2022

Jesus Taught Us How To Be Human

Jeanne asked me a question about my blog the other day that, after I stopped...

July 2022

July 30, 2022

Some Crooked Things Don’t Need to be Made Straight

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made. Immanuel Kant...

July 23, 2022

Negotiating with God

I have the privilege of giving the sermon today at Trinity Episcopal Church in Pawtuxet,...

July 20, 2022

The Webb Telescope Images and Confirmation Bias

I had an unexpected and very interesting exchange concerning science and faith on Facebook the...

July 09, 2022

What They Don’t Tell Us About Wisdom–Part Two

A couple of weeks ago I posted an essay called “What They Don’t Tell Us...

June 2022

June 30, 2022

Cassidy Hutchinson and a Story from Ancient Syria

Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony before the January 6th Select Committee last Tuesday was both powerful and...

June 21, 2022

So You Want to be Free? Face your Demons

Iris Murdoch is one of my favorite philosophers and novelists, a writer whose work is...

June 11, 2022

The Spiritual Life of Crows

My childhood was filled with unusual characters, all products of my father’s fertile imagination. A...

June 07, 2022

How Should a Normal Person Approach the Bible?

I recently came across a great podcast called “The Bible for Normal People,” hosted by...

June 03, 2022

Faith Needs Many Things, But It Doesn’t Need a Creed

One Sunday I decided to pay close attention to the words of the Nicene Creed...

May 2022

May 26, 2022

Swallowing the Mystery

In her wonderful memoir Take This Bread, Sara Miles tells us of a conversation she had...

May 24, 2022

Save Your Thoughts and Prayers. Do Something

Here we are again. Mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvaldi in the past few days,...

May 23, 2022

The Story I am Willing to be Wrong About

My political scientist Dominican priest friend and colleague, who was my teaching partner in our...

May 21, 2022

Some Advice for the Graduating Seniors: Don’t Forget About the Room at the Back of your Shop

Today is Commencement Day for the Class of 2022 at my college. Commencement is always...

May 17, 2022

An Evolving Faith: It’s About Survival, not Progress

To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. Ecclesiastes...

May 14, 2022

A Story About Learning to See Things Differently

In a comment on last Thursday’s blog post—“God is Not a Vending Machine”—a Facebook friend...

May 10, 2022

Saying Something Profound

Regular classes for the spring semester ended last Friday--semesters seem to go by more quickly...

May 03, 2022

The Gospel According to Compost

Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that...

April 2022

April 24, 2022

A Human Being Having a Divine Experience

Two decades ago, as my mother-in-law was steadily descending into the hell of Alzheimer’s, an...

April 02, 2022

Martha or Mary? Type A or Type not-A?

The stereotype of the Type A personality has become an entrenched part of cultural lore....

March 2022

March 23, 2022

Have Yourself an Introspective Day

In our three years in Milwaukee, our first years together as a married couple trying...

March 15, 2022

The God Who is With Us and Forsakes Us

This week in my "Faith and Doubt" seminar we are encountering Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of...

March 12, 2022

Is a Ukrainian Life Worth Higher Gas Prices?

A regular reader of my blog asked the other day whether I might want to...

March 09, 2022

Confessions of a Tree Hugger

For the twenty-five-plus years that Jeanne and I have lived in our house, the lot...

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