Perspective

Dante Alighieri with Florence and the Realms of the Divine Comedy (Hell, Purgatory, Paradise), fresco by Domenico di Michelino (1465, after Alesso Baldovinetti), Florence Cathedral. (Photo: Heroldius/Menkin AlRire, Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0)   November, the month of the dead, calls us to remember our own death and to prepare for eternal life. We may be tempted to think of this preparation in minimalist terms — avoiding mortal sin and fulfilling a basic set of obligations, such as...

John Unitas with the Baltimore Colts in 1963. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain) In early October, a dinner conversation with an old friend turned to why we both find the National Football League virtually unwatchable these days: the constant penalties (often elongated into absurdly lengthy reviews); incessant injuries to key players; TV ads for in-game betting; and above all, the adolescent, suggestive post-touchdown “celebrations” that remind one why, when Elvis Presley  first...

Icon of Saint John Henry Newman written by Jacques Bihin in 2022. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0) The All Saints Day proclamation of St. John Henry Newman as a Doctor of the Church was entirely welcome, if not without a certain irony. First, the good news. Newman was one of the most creative Christian minds of the nineteenth century, a truth seeker whose lifelong search for the face of Christ took him from evangelicalism through reformist, High Church Anglicanism into Catholicism....

At 17, I felt invisible — until one youth leader’s prayer opened a door for the Holy Spirit that would ripple through generations. (Photo courtesy of Shannon Vall) By Shannon Vall In the summer of 1985, a lonely, sad 17-year-old girl found herself reluctantly heading west on Highway 36 toward a weekend teen retreat along the Colorado Front Range. She hadn’t chosen to go — her well-intentioned but insistent mother had made that decision for her. She arrived uneasy and lost, counting the hours...

(Photo by Lothar Wolleh / Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0) Sixty years ago, on October 28, 1965, the Second Vatican Council adopted, and Pope Paul VI promulgated, the Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, known by the first words in the official Latin text as Nostra Aetate  (In Our Age). I chart Nostra Aetate ’s sometimes rocky passage through Vatican II in To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II .  Suffice it to note here that the obstinate...

Her two-word theory promises peace through detachment, yet Christ alone brings healing that no self-help formula can provide. (Photo courtesy of Mel Robbins' Facebook page) You know the feeling. One moment, life is great, and the next, you are free-falling into despair. Why? Because you opened Instagram and saw your friends hanging out without you. You start to spiral as you ask incessantly: Why didn’t they invite me? What did I do? What is wrong with me? Seven hours later, you're ashamed...

The stigmata of St. Francis reminds the faithful that holiness is not about perfection, but about love so complete that it bears the marks of Christ. St Francis Receiving the Stigmata by Unknown Artist (The Master of Cross 434), c. 1240-1250. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. (Photo by Elizabeth Zelasko) We are truly rich in the lives of the saints, yet I would argue that few can rival Francis of Assisi. Called by Christ from a life of comfort and privilege, he became a living witness of...

(Photo: Unsplash) Years ago, my wife and I read the book Parenting with Love and Logic  and applied its principles with our now-grown adult kids. The book quickly became a parenting classic, helping parents raise responsible, independent kids with love and empathy by setting boundaries and allowing natural consequences for their actions. We had to keep the proverbial forest in view and not the trees — it was hard work. We had to remember that, amid all the parental trials, tribulations and...

(Photo: Lightstock) The American holiday calendar is surprisingly rich with Catholic traditions — St. Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, All Hallows Eve, Christmas and Easter. All of them, however, have taken on a life of their own, shaped by American consumerism, and often bear little resemblance to their Catholic origins. Halloween, in particular, has drawn elements from the celebration of All Souls Day and various pagan traditions, especially the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked...

Faith is not just an idea but a relationship — a lived encounter with the Person of Jesus Christ. (Photo: Lightstock) “Do you know Jesus?” I let the question hang in the air, my go-to whenever I walk with someone in discipleship. A blank stare. “…I mean, I guess?” “You guess ?”  A smile. “Let me ask you a different question. Do you know me ?” “Yes.” “Do you ‘guess’ that you know me?” “No.” “Ok, then why do you guess that you know Jesus?” “Hm. Well, I guess I know about  Jesus, but I don’t...

The UK Parliament has debated "assisted dying" for months, the latest affront to life and a clear misunderstanding of compassion. (Photo: Unsplash) The “Mother of Parliaments” — that’s the one in London — has been embroiled for months in a debate over “assisted dying,” which is euphemized elsewhere under other Orwellian monikers: “Medical Assistance in Dying,” “Physician Assisted Suicide,” “Physician Assisted Dying,” and so forth. The bill legalizing this odious practice narrowly passed the...

Pope Leo XIV's first exhortation reminds us that the poor are not a problem to fix, but persons to love — and that every act of service begins with conversion of heart. (Photo courtesy of Christ in the City) By Philip Couture Director of Formation Christ in the City There’s a question that has defined all my years in Denver:   “How do I serve the poor?”   That’s probably not the question that follows most people through the Mile High City, but it marked my very first days here up to the...