In his recent essay on the Sacrament of Marriage, Timothy O’Malley observed that a deeply consumerist culture has grown up around the nuptial liturgy and the reception. Having assisted engaged couples with choosing the liturgical music for their wedding ceremonies, I can attest that this consumerist culture is not simply relegated to externals like flowers and clothing; rather, it has seeped into ...
Previously in this series: A Theology of Liturgical Evangelization: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4
Throughout its long history, theology has certainly seemed more comfortable understanding itself through its claim to truth or goodness than to beauty.
We often think about sin as extravagance. The sinner is the one who drinks too much, gambles too much, who desires pleasure too much. On the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time, we consider the stinginess of the sinner. The sinner who loves not enough.
During the Jubilee Year, we have often heard the word ‘mercy.’ Every time I hear it, I think about its Latin equivalent: misericordia. The literal sense of this word is the movement of the heart toward pity. The misery of the heart that causes us to reach out in love.
In late medieval culture, the feast of Corpus Christi was an occasion for a carnival-esque celebration. Plays were performed throughout the city, remembering the entirety of salvation history. Processions unfolded upon beds of roses, as prince and pauper alike praised the sacrament of the Eucharist.
“They were ‘doing birth’ to me rather than helping me ‘give birth,’” writes Susan Windley-Daoust of her first experience of childbirth, which she had hoped to do naturally but that instead resulted in “failure to progress” and a C-section. “That birth experience ended up being spiritually abusive by the ongoing treatment of me as an object (and not just an object; close to an object of ridicule). ...
Soon after the release of her latest album Inheritance, Catholic singer-songwriter Audrey Assad graciously provided the following interview describing her inspirations and her aspirations for this project and for her music in general. We are grateful to Audrey for sharing her thoughts with us as a complement to the review of her album featured here at Church Life.
There may be nothing quite as divisive and seemingly stuck in a political quagmire than abortion in twenty-first century America. This is exactly why Charlie Camosy’s book Beyond the Abortion Wars: A Way Forward for a New Generation is so timely and so needed in the conversation, one he proposes Millennials are ready to abandon in favor of a new political and social binary. Instead of simply entre...
Francis, in his first major interview as Pope, spoke of his admiration for the early Jesuit Peter Faber, whom he would soon declare a saint. Since you can tell a lot about a man by his friends—including his friends in heaven—I began to read Faber’s spiritual diary, the Memoriale, to see what it might tell me about Francis’ spirituality. It was a revelation.
