People are thirsty for someone to listen to them. Asking open questions, reflecting what we hear, and pausing so someone can expand on a topic can result in better conversations and deeper relationships.

Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble, a contemporary Sister of the Congregation of St. Paul, offers a 5-step practice for memento mori that can be deeply meaningful to modern seekers.

Progressives, too, may be free riders on what we disdainfully call “the establishment”—benefiting from tradition but not contributing to it, or even dismissing it. 

The music [of Beethoven and others] encodes deep suffering and grief that has to be part of the difficulty of Christian spirituality. You have to have a tough mind to be a Christian.

"When someone needs safety, it’s the duty of Christians to offer that to everyone regardless of their political affiliation or their religious beliefs."

"As a person socialized as white in a racist culture, O’Connor does not intuitively grasp the psychic damage done by slavery ... and this lack of understanding and experience shows up in the stories as well as in the letters."

The Visitation Sisters taught me that it’s only in our relationship with one another that we can live out the gospel and no one can be a Christian alone.

As we "run the race" to win, as Paul encouraged the Corinthians, what "deliberate practice" will help shape us as Christian disciples?

Voter suppression is a serious threat to our democracy. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove gives a powerful example and biblical argument against this continuing practice.

You play the harp / to the last drops of rain / glissanding down the window pane, / the unfolding night sky...

Across my road a buck, a doe and fawn / stood like statues on my neighbor's lawn.

How might the Prayer of St. Francis be adapted for these times? Poet Rick Peterson offers a fresh take on the social justice text, considering what kind of instrument we may be in a world in crisis.