Lent in the Catholic liturgy begins by thanking God for giving us “this joyful season.” That’s not the way I grew up thinking of Lent! It was more about sacrifice. But today, there is a renewed theological foundation that makes it possible to talk about Lent as a joyful season....
This post introduces the Season of Creation [SoC] to Catholics and gives the 2019 theme. It focuses too on the crisis unfolding in the Amazon as matter for prayer and action for the SoC. These materials explain the need for serious ecological conversion, offering prayers and homily points for reflection....
Scripture reminds us that without a vision, the people perish. In two short reports recently, NPR’s Morning Edition offered two large-scale images of what it would be like to be living carbon-free by 2050. Enjoy a much-needed whiff of hope....
America’s vicious tribal politics, so erratically and manipulatively related to “truth” and dismissive of human rights and the common good, reveals roots in the national original sins of genocide, slavery, and destructive ecological domination. Brueggemann’s socially brilliant biblical discernment offers a way to redemption. There is no time to waste....
As the liturgical Season of Creation for 2018 draws to a close, the serious need for prayer, study and widespread action in response to the destructive threats of climate change has never before seemed so urgent. Through all that I have heard through the years about the dangers of climate change...
This post returns to a theological reflection I wrote with my Center of Concern colleagues in the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001. It contemplates the “Best Face of America” and warns of the temptations at that time. Its plea went unheeded. Its vision deserves our continuing prayer and dedication....
Let this sink in: We’ve already used a year’s worth of Earth’s resources as of August 1st, Earth Overshoot Day for 2018 –the day each year that the human community has used more from nature than Earth can renew in an entire year. And it’s coming earlier every year…....
Tens of thousands of students across the U.S. have again walked out of their schools in a coordinated effort to demand an end to gun violence. This protest takes place on the 19thanniversary of the Columbine school shooting. Since then, more than 208,000 students across the country have experienced gun...
John 10:31-42 As I wrote in my last blog entry, I believe that the Spirit of God is active in social movements in our times, as has been the case throughout history. It requires a discerning social consciousness for all serious Christians. Holiness is not simply a personal interior quest...
The Holy Spirit has a new organizing tool. The hashtag. #MeToo #TimesUp #EnoughIsEnough #NeverAgain #MarchForOurLives. The list can go on. There is no better recent example than the way #MeToo created a sense of solidarity and protection that gave victims around the world, people who had been threatened into silence...