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August 2017

August 17, 2017

Life, Death, Bread, Host

Guest Post by Laura Bramon This post originally appeared at "Good Letters" on August 18,...

August 16, 2017

Entering the Age of Subtraction

I am entering the Age of Subtraction. Almost as if there existed an imperceptible fulcrum...

August 09, 2017

Possessed

It refused to rain during the hot, middling July weeks the summer I turned fifteen....

August 08, 2017

The Iron Cross, Part 2

This post originally appeared on “Good Letters” on October 14, 2014. Continued from yesterday. The...

August 07, 2017

The Iron Cross, Part 1

This post originally appeared on “Good Letters” on October 13, 2014. I didn’t know Julia...

July 2017

July 31, 2017

Who Is This Aliveness I Am?

I am alive. I am alive. I am alive. Who is this aliveness I...

July 25, 2017

As Petals Fall

“Why are you in the dirt?” he asked, trundling to where I crouched. “I’m pulling...

July 19, 2017

Summer’s Heartbeat

On some summer nights, it seems the world is brighter, more visible in a quiet...

July 13, 2017

The Beautiful Boy

It’s barely even summer and already, in our house it is the Summer of the...

June 2017

June 29, 2017

My Own Desert (Tortoise) Father

This post originally appeared on “Good Letters” on July 21, 2014. I didn’t spend enough...

June 28, 2017

New Names for Old Gods

For modern man, a loss of the religious center resulted in all kinds of maladies.

June 26, 2017

Practicing Presence, Part 1

The following two-part post was originally delivered as the 2017 commencement address for Trinity Academy...

June 13, 2017

Do Atheists Dream of Pearly Gates?

Yes even when I don’t believe there is a place in me inaccessible to unbelief...

June 12, 2017

A Book Without a Spine

The picture you see to the left is of a bookshelf in a local Starbucks....

June 06, 2017

Movements of the Lord

As I was saying my rosary this morning on my walk, it occurred to me...

June 05, 2017

On the 50th Anniversary of the Six-Day War

What I didn’t know in June of 1967 was that this month and year for...

May 2017

May 11, 2017

The “Oh, There You Are” Prayer

The love of God is scattershot. It is the love of the artist toward her...

May 10, 2017

Quartet for J. Robert Oppenheimer

What would you think of a biography of a famous person written in the form...

May 09, 2017

Disturbing the Silence: Part 2

Flocking to rural life and simple living can be just as much an attempt to...

May 04, 2017

Singing the Qur’an in Different Voices

I sat through the meeting distracted, nervous. I should have been at ease. After all,...

May 02, 2017

Endurance Test

By Matt Newcomb. My father held the wall to work his way from the bed...

April 2017

April 24, 2017

Praying for a Hurricane on an Ordinary Wednesday Afternoon

“It is easier to survive a category five hurricane than it is to get through...

April 19, 2017

Always Becoming

The following is adapted from an address given at the Seattle Pacific University MFA in...

April 18, 2017

Finding My Sister in Young Adult Novels

Lately all I want to read are young adult novels about sisters. Young adult (YA)...

April 11, 2017

Take, Eat

By Sneha Abraham. I clutch the edge of the cracked leather seat and close my...

April 06, 2017

Muddy River

By Jen Pollock Michel. It was the summer of Leiby Kletzy, the eight-year-old Hasidic boy...

March 2017

March 30, 2017

Share If You Agree

I have had it with the rage. It might drive me off social media. At...

March 29, 2017

My Bad Italy Novel

February is offseason in Rome, so today the city is a little gray, a little...

March 23, 2017

Love Nailed to the Doorpost

The commandment to love is nailed to my doorpost. Ritualistically written on a little piece...

March 22, 2017

The Landscape of Grief

Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a...