We hear it from leaders of all stripes, any time violence breaks out: “This is not who we are.” My first response when I hear this is generally cynicism: clearly, the fact that “this” has happened means that we have shown it to be exactly who we are. But then, as I think about it, I see the underlyingly aspirational nature of such statements. In other words, what they’re really saying is, “This is not who we want to be.”... Read more
Note: This post is adapted from the notes of a sermon I was invited to give on Sunday, May 12 at Christ Church, a United Church of Christ in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. As a Catholic I was thrilled by this invitation, particularly the chance to preach publicly as part of a liturgy – something my own tradition does not permit. It was an incredibly empowering experience for me, and I’d like to share with you the story I shared with the... Read more
Today, Catholics around the world celebrate the Feast of God’s Divine Mercy. I wish more people – regardless of creed – could be aware of this special day. During the 1930’s, at a time when the world seemed to be falling apart, when tyranny was on the rise in Europe and economic hardship was widespread, a Catholic sister named Faustina Kowalska had a series of mystical experiences centering around a deep experience of God’s mercy. Amid personal and political hardship... Read more
Winners Unions Public teachers People with student loan debt People on prescription medications Medical researchers Weapons manufacturers Potato chip lovers Losers Large corporations Children conceived with disabilities Asylum seekers People living in war zones It’s been said that the moral measure of society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. (Versions of this have been traced to Mohandas Gandhi, Hubert Humphrey and others, but the exact origin is contested.) By this measure, the... Read more
After reading my fellow blogger Julia Smucker’s piece about the implication of wearing our ashes on Ash Wednesday, I thought I would share a curious variant that I encountered in Lisbon. I am here for business and since there was no English language alternative for Ash Wednesday, my wife and I went to the local parish church, Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, for the evening service. As we were waiting to queue up to receive our ashes, I... Read more
There is a video of a PostSecret event – where audience members can choose to share a secret publicly – in which a Muslim woman wearing a hijab says: “My secret is that because I wear the headscarf, because I’m so clearly Muslim, I go out of my way to be nice to everybody, to donate to everybody that ever asks me for money in public, just because I don’t want them to think that Muslims are bad people, even... Read more
The publication of Fiducia Supplicans by the Vatican almost two months ago prompted quite a tumult in the Catholic world (at least on social media), with all manner of reactions, both positive and negative. I don’t want to dive into the controversy over this document, at least not directly. Suffice it to say that from my perspective, much of the hostility towards this document in the United States is driven by the faction of Catholics who are overtly hostile to... Read more
Visiting family for Christmas affords the opportunity to keep the feast among both Mennonites and Catholics, the two branches of the Christian tradition that I consider home. Even though they don’t currently live in or near any of the multiple communities in which my faith was formed, being among Mennonites invariably feels like a homecoming of sorts, a return to a native country from which I may have in some sense expatriated, but which can never not be home. Why do... Read more
Eleven years ago, I gave this sermon to my Secular Franciscan fraternity and posted it here at Vox Nova. It is one of my favorite posts on Vox Nova. In light of the my last post on Greccio, I want to share it with you again. December 16, 2012, Gaudete Sunday A sermon delivered to St. Joseph Fraternity, Hartford, as part of our annual Christmas Creche devotion My brothers and sisters in Christ: may the Lord give you Peace! Today... Read more
The year 2023 marks the 800th anniversary of the very first Christmas creche, which was created by St. Francis of Assisi to celebrate midnight mass in the town of Greccio in 1223. The story is recounted by his first biographer, Thomas of Celano, and below I have pasted an extensive extract of his account. Francis did more than create a creche: he created a living nativity scene in a cave, complete with an ox and ass. To mark this occasion,... Read more
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