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Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

March 2018

March 06, 2018

As I Lay (Nearly) Dying

At first I didn’t know that I was dying. I’d been rushed to the hospital...

February 2018

February 14, 2018

Suffering and Ash Wednesday

Suffering is the most dissociative word in the Christian lexicon. Raised Catholic, I was taught...

May 2017

May 02, 2017

Endurance Test

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

April 2017

April 12, 2017

God is a Wild Old Dog

God is a wild old dog / Someone left out on the highway —Patty Griffin...

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 16, 2017

The Beauty Dialogues, Part 2

The following is a response to Morgan Meis’s letter posted yesterday. Dear Morgan: Thanks for...

March 15, 2017

The Beauty Dialogues, Part 1

Today Morgan Meis continues his periodic exchanges with Image founder Gregory Wolfe. Dear Greg, When...

February 2017

February 07, 2017

The Song of the Desert

“The Word of God which is his comfort is also his distress. The liturgy, which...

January 2017

January 17, 2017

Black Lives, Black Art

I happened to be re-reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin when the current issue of Image (#90)...

November 2016

November 21, 2016

Listening to Beautiful Darkness

Waking from the Nightmare A little girl awakens in an autumn wood. She stands, looks...

August 2016

August 31, 2016

Microbes, Miracles, and Monstrosities

I’ve always promised myself I wouldn’t work with anything living, a prohibition I applied first...

June 2016

June 20, 2016

My HIV Test

By Paul Luikart Here’s something I never told my parents: some years ago I got...

June 07, 2016

A Letter To My Sister

Eve, my sister The one who took the fall Eve, my sister Mother of us...

May 2016

May 19, 2016

The Long Regretful Wait

By Tony Woodlief My mother’s quavering voicemail was right: I hadn’t called in a long...

May 17, 2016

Grief and the Weight of Glory

The wind whips through the quilts and sheets on our clothesline, cracking now and then...

April 2016

April 19, 2016

The Wounds of Resurrection

As my husband prepared for an Easter sermon a few weeks ago, our dinnertime conversations...

March 2016

March 22, 2016

Refugees Are People, Not a Crisis

Sometimes the horrors in the news are so overwhelming that I’m left speechless. This is...

March 09, 2016

Finding My Inner Calamity Jane

Calamity Jane lumbered around Deadwood in fringed buckskins, spitting, cursing, and waving her whiskey flask...

February 2016

February 24, 2016

Peace, My Animal

"Benedic, anima mea," I say each night to the mouse that lives behind my desk....

October 2015

October 13, 2015

Lucia Berlin: A Master of Catholic Fiction, Part 2

By Jenny Shank Continued from yesterday. Catholic imagery appears throughout Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for...

September 2015

September 21, 2015

Let Me Die Like This

When I die, Lord, let me go in a plane crash, spiraling down, earthward, earthward,...

September 11, 2015

Seeking Refuge

By Shannon Huffman Polson I’d just put my two young sons to bed when I...

August 2015

August 04, 2015

Breaking Bad’s Walter White is My Shining Star

When I first met Walter White, I was in pretty bad shape. Incapacitated by my...

June 2015

June 01, 2015

Charlie Hebdo and the Inner Soul of Humor

My friend Justin Smith recently wrote a piece for Harper’s Magazine. Justin is a brilliant...

May 2015

May 29, 2015

Triple Scoop

By Jessica Mesman Griffith My best friend died suddenly almost two years ago. She’d lived...

May 20, 2015

Monasticism in Lockdown America, Part 9: Psalms, In the End

Continued from yesterday. Thinking of the psalms as a way to cycle through the...

May 19, 2015

Monasticism in Lockdown America, Part 8: Psalms, In the Beginning

I always privately hated the psalms. Most of them, anyway. As a teenager, I’d leaf...

May 12, 2015

Facing Calvary

There’s a line from last year’s thought-provoking film, Calvary, that’s uttered by a young French...

May 05, 2015

When We Die

A text from a friend: “What do you believe happens when we die?” She’d recently...

May 04, 2015

Las Madres: Art and Death in the Arizona Desert

"The artist is a beggar because she is empty, waiting to be filled. But the...