This time around

God always offers us a second chance in life. – Paulo Cuelho My father’s death in 2007 is the real deal, with a casket and flowers and everything. There is a wake and a mass, there is a burial. People come from all over to pay their last respects, to say goodbye. For all of … Read more

What a silly question

For nothing will be impossible with God. – Luke, 1:37 The mountain in L’Alpiniste is a glacial boulder floating in mid-air. The cloud is blue. The sky is white. In a climate too frigid to support life stands an underdressed figure unaffected by the cold, a cat strapped to his back like a knapsack. Nothing … Read more

What can it hurt?

Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at his disposition, and listening to His voice in the depths of our hearts. – Mother Theresa The bodybuilding exercises my friend Camille incorporates into our powerwalks along the St. Charles River include simple movements like sit-ups and squats. I wish we would skip the jumping … Read more

Here and now

Be still, and know that I am God. – Psalm 46:10 During times of fear and anxiety, people have often turned to Psalm 46 for comfort. In his meditation on this psalm, Timothy Keller explains why. The psalmist, he tells us, is contrasting earthly cities to the heavenly city, the city of God; while the … Read more

Art, the great teacher

Art, like prayer, is a hand outstretched in the darkness seeking for some touch of grace which will transform it into a hand that bestows gifts. – Franz Kafka In his book, Prayer, Timothy Keller takes us inside Flannery O’Connor’s A Prayer Journal, which she started in 1946 while studying at the University of Iowa. … Read more