Each day, there are countless demands on our time and our energy. We work to provide for ourselves and our families in the short time we have on this globe. But despite all that, we do well to remember the poet Hopkins’ call: “Look at the stars! look, look up at the skies!” The entire cosmos, from the electrons that orbit their nuclei to the planets that orbit other stars in other galaxies, cries out for our attention and promises to reward the one who stops to see.
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The God Who Mugs You
God scoffs at religious superiority; he wants his people to love him and their neighbors. When a Muslim or a Buddhist or an atheist suspicious of or even antagonistic to the Church lives out a better example of Christ’s life than a Christian does, the Christian is freed to recognize the face of Jesus Christ along with Jacob and admit in wonder that “I have seen your face like seeing the face of God."
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Six Unwanted Books
For bibliophiles, their books are mirrors of their character, and we judge ourselves by the relationship we maintain with our books. An unlikely group of six books made me confront this part of myself.
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Memento Mori in Minneapolis
But rather than forgetting pain or fooling ourselves into silliness, perhaps there is a holy admixture of laughter and mourning, a way to remember our own end through these earthly and earthy rituals.
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All This Juice and All This Joy: A Reflection on the Minnesota State Fair
Unlike Hopkins' bounty, the “juice” and “joy” of the state fair is far more often to be found sticking to the bottom of your shoe than in a pristine experience of nature...and yet...
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The Waiting Place
If you are waiting for a few things—say, a tray of seedlings and a batch of sourdough starter and muscle to build and grief to heal—I think that it makes the beginnings of a rich life.
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March 25th: A Feast of Feasts
Many Christians celebrate the Annunciation of the Lord on this day, and for years that was my only association with it. As it turns out, some combination of historical circumstances, fate, and tradition has placed a great deal of weight on this date, and the reason the Annunciation has been celebrated then is no mere coincidence but a participation in an older tradition preceding even the birth of Christ.
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On Advent and Advertising
Advertisements tell us, never in so many words, that the answer to the needs of our heart, to the indescribable nostalgia we feel at times, can be found in some finite thing. They get us to put our hope in things that cannot satisfy us.
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The Loneliness of Icons
We all need good days with icons—moments where the meaning of life is abundant and overflowing, when the sticky leaves of spring break our hearts with significance.
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The Shame and the Glory
Rejoice that you have a body. It may be prone to illness, easily tempted, heavy and awkward in social situations, and marked with wounds and pain. But so is our Lord's. And we will yet rise with him, naked to reveal every scar, our shame now remade into glory.
