Rod Dreher’s “The Benedict Option” (2017) has been on my list of things to read for a long time. As a Cistercian monk rooted in the Benedictine tradition and apostolically engaged as a priest and teacher, I basically felt like it was required reading, given how often people refer to it.
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If I were a prospective elementary school parent, the first question I would ask a principal or teacher would be: What is your mission?
This petition is the most scandalous of them all. The verb tenses reveal the heart of the matter.
In Mark 4:35, just before the calming of the storm at sea, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us cross to the other side.” They boarded a boat, and it was during this crossing that a violent storm arose, with heavy waves threatening to overwhelm them. It was there, in the midst of the storm, that Jesus calmed the sea.
My ideal translation of this phrase would be “Give us our ‘supersubstantial’ bread today.” That would sound gloriously awkward at Mass, and ‘supersubstantial’ would be a liturgical tongue twister for children trying to say the word quickly five times in a row. That translation, though, grants immediate access to the mystery at work in the first petition of the Our Father prayer.
There is a quiet strength in surrender — one that doesn’t always feel heroic, yet often marks the beginning of our most transformative spiritual journeys.
Today, AI is everywhere. It has become a part of our daily interactions, our learning systems, our communications, and even our worship spaces.
Gambling is growing in our country — and quickly. My impression is that we have work to do to be informed about what is happening and to let ourselves be formed by what the Church teaches, lest so much happen without the constructive engagement of Catholics and of anyone else concerned about social justice.
Oh, how I love Peter! Not because he was perfect or always got things right, but because he was human — flawed, impulsive, emotional, and yet so deeply faithful.
My wife Karoline and I had planned to be in Rome for a celebration — a “sposi novelli” (newlywed couples) blessing, the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis, and a final trip before we welcome our first child this fall. But everything changed on Easter Monday, when the news broke that Pope Francis had died.