Perspective

For the Solemnity of the Assumption, a masterpiece of sacred art reveals the relationship between beauty, longing and love. Assumption of the Virgin by ​Titian, c. 1516-1518. Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice, Italy. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) “What makes good art?” It was the way my friend asked the question. Knowing him, he wasn’t looking for an answer that included anything along the lines of “sound composition, good lighting, technical mastery in the...

(Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) Jealousy is not the same as envy. Envy desires what another possesses, while jealousy seeks to guard what one has so that no one else may possess it. It’s an important distinction for understanding the Bible. God calls himself jealous toward his people Israel, wanting to keep them for himself so that they do not follow after the customs of surrounding nations and their strange gods. In Exodus 34, after charging Israel to tear down altars and...

Part Nine: Once someone has encountered Jesus, the need to change, repent and convert becomes clear. Denver Archbishop James Golka baptizes a young man during the 2026 Easter Vigil at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver. (Photo by Dan Petty/Denver Catholic) Editor's Note: This column is part of a yearlong series on evangelization, breaking down what often feels like a tall order into real, practical, actionable steps towards intentional accompaniment. Part One: A...

A Man for All Season's poster, cropped. (Photo: Fair Use via IMDB) 1966 was a great year for movies and six decades later, the five nominated for “Best Picture” at the 39th Academy Awards the following year are all still worth watching: Alfie; A Man for All Seasons; The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming; The Sand Pebbles; and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? That 1967 Oscar ceremony seems to have taken place on a distant and different planet, though, light-years removed from the...

(Photo by Lena Hall Photography) I had terrible postpartum depression with my second-born and didn’t even know it. I was convinced that if I fixed this particular problem or got that much more sleep, everything would be better. But I was in such a dark place, I couldn’t see how dark it really was. A Tough Beginning We had two children within our first two years of marriage, so life was changing very rapidly. When our first was born, every part of motherhood felt new and overwhelming. When our...

(Photo: Lightstock) Fiction can often convey the human texture of a time and place better than scholarly works of history. Herewith, and in honor of the national semiquincentennial, some novels that help tell the Catholic story in these United States through a fictional lens. The Pre-History: Through the life of one of my native state’s notable daughters, Margaret Brent, Lucia St. Clair Robson’s Mary’s Land recounts the initial settlement and later struggles of the only English colony...

I had martini lunches, a human-fax-machine job and no intention of moving to California. God had other ideas. (Photo: Lightstock) I was a college dropout. Twenty years old. Working for an oil company. Dating an executive. Enjoying martini lunches at the old world oilmen’s clubs. It was like a Mad Men throwback, and I loved it. There was only one problem. My job was “human fax machine.” In those pre-fax days, I walked up and down the streets of downtown Denver, delivering documents. Without a...

In Baptism, every Catholic receives a new identity in Christ and a mission to share his love with the world. Archbishop Golka blesses those gathered for Easter Sunday Mass with holy water, following their renewal of baptismal promises. (Photo by Dan Petty/Denver Catholic) The day after I was installed as Archbishop of Denver, one of my younger nieces came running up to me. She gave me a massive hug, looked up at me and said, “It’s like a tsunami of love just ran through us.” I experienced...

Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata by Giotto, c. 1500. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) October 3rd will mark 800 years since the death of St. Francis of Assisi. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Pope Leo XIV has proclaimed a Jubilee Year of St. Francis from January 10, 2026, to the following January. The fact that the entire Church is invited to enter this Jubilee shows us just how important the witness of St. Francis remains as a man truly conformed to Christ-crucified...

The Speyer Cathedral, Dom Speyer in German. (Photo: Sail over via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0) Speyer is a charming city on the west bank of the Rhine River. Its splendid medieval core is dominated by a magnificent 11th-century cathedral, the resting place of German emperors for three hundred years and one of Europe’s greatest expressions of Romanesque architecture. (For fans of British royalty, the future King Edward VII was introduced to his future wife, Alexandra, in the Dom Speyer in...

(Photo: Lightstock) By Jordan Langdon, LCSW Parent Coach Families of Character There's something about August that feels like another New Year. Maybe it's the stacks of school supplies in every store or the calendar that suddenly fills up overnight. Whatever it is, we all start thinking the same thing: This year is going to be different. We promise ourselves we'll be more organized. Mornings won't be so rushed. Homework won't become a nightly battle. Family dinners will happen more...

(Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) In his June 2 Wall Street Journal column, Jason L. Riley noted a disturbing trend in our American moment: “According to the Department of Labor, 1 in 3 men were neither working nor looking for a job in April.” That sad state of affairs is multi-causal, to be sure. The hard fact, though, as Jason Riley argued and Nicholas Eberstadt demonstrated in his book Men Without Work, “is that the long-term rise in male joblessness doesn’t stem from an...