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February 2026

February 15, 2026

The World Can Shine Like Transfiguration

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent....

December 2025

December 07, 2025

Are You the One Who Is to Come?

Fifteen years ago, on the Second Sunday of Advent, I was asked to give the...

September 2025

September 11, 2025

When Will We Get Tired of Hating People? A 9/11 reflection

Everyone beyond a certain age can remember clearly what they were doing twenty-four years ago...

July 2025

July 25, 2025

Let It Be

Every time I tell our Alexa to "play the Beatles," I stop what I'm doing...

July 15, 2025

Finding the Thing with Feathers

Anyone who has ever stepped inside a Catholic church more than once for a mass...

July 11, 2025

Death is Inevitable

One of my most effective attention-getters in any given class is to point out to...

June 2025

June 19, 2025

There Is No One But Us

As I continue to work through my next book project that has been on the...

June 15, 2025

How to be Good

I'm re-working a full draft of my next book project--Nice Work If You Can Get...

June 12, 2025

Is God a Helicopter Parent?

When you've been together with someone for thirty-seven years, being creative for that person's birthday...

May 2025

May 18, 2025

Great Advice for Graduates: God’s Will, and Flipping a Coin

Dear Graduates... Today is graduation day at Providence College, where I just finished my thirty-first...

May 04, 2025

Finding Hope on the Road to Emmaus

One of the downsides of the liturgical calendar is that, since it runs in a...

April 2025

April 13, 2025

Palm Sunday and the Tongue of a Teacher

Today is Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week. This year Holy Week is...

January 2025

January 26, 2025

You are Not Alone

The pastor of the Lutheran church Jeanne attends sends out a scripture verse or passage...

December 2024

December 31, 2024

Hope for the New Year

Iin his end-of-the-year op-ed in the Washington Post at the end of 2021 Michael Gerson...

December 27, 2024

Will we ever fill the hungry with good things?

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Holy Innocents on the liturgical calendar, the day that...

December 22, 2024

The Fourth Sunday of Advent: Mother Mary Comes To Me

Three years ago I had the privilege of giving the Advent 4 sermon at Trinity...

December 13, 2024

How to be Hopeful

Herodotus is considered to be the first true historian in the contemporary sense of the...

December 03, 2024

Beauty for Ashes

On a beautiful, crystal clear June afternoon in 2002 I sat in an alpine meadow...

December 01, 2024

A Brief Introduction to Advent

Today is both the first Sunday of Advent and the first Sunday of the new...

October 2024

October 06, 2024

Teach Us to Sit Still

In one month the most consequential Presidential election of our lifetimes will take place. People...

August 2024

August 27, 2024

You have Permission to be Joyful

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:...

July 2024

July 22, 2024

When a Word is a Complete Sentence

All of us live in a world filled with words. For academics, words are the...

June 2024

June 20, 2024

Not Long Ago. Not Far Away

Jeanne and I went to the Auschwitz exhibition in Boston yesterday--it's there for the rest...

June 06, 2024

Speaking the Truth in a Culture of Lies

As I continue to put my new book, A Year of Faith and Philosophy: Exploring Spiritual...

March 2024

March 29, 2024

What’s “Good” About Good Friday?

Many Christmas Eves ago, Jeanne, our youngest son Justin, and I were invited to share...

March 21, 2024

Growing Tomatoes on Death Row

In my various courses this semester we have spent a good deal of time developing...

February 2024

February 04, 2024

Can We Trust Each Other? A Reflection on Human Nature

The other day upon returning from her early morning visit to the gym, the first...

February 01, 2024

Is Religion a Virus?

The last time I was a member of a search committee for a new tenure...

January 2024

January 04, 2024

Why January 6th is Important

Three years ago this coming Saturday, I was sitting in the recliner in our little...

December 2023

December 31, 2023

A Prayer for the New Year

So here we are at the end of yet another year. Kate Bowler, who all...

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