From the first time we step into our kindergarten classroom, inspirational messages abound from our parents, teachers, and mentors: You can be anything you want to be. You’re going to change the world. God has great plans for you. Similarly, at my Jesuit undergraduate institution, St. Ignatius of Loyola’s quote formed the basis of our… Read More 4 Suggestions for Restoring Adventure to Your Daily Life
I was never really a big Lent guy. Advent was more my season. Who wouldn’t prefer a decorated Christmas tree to a stringy palm branch, or singing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” as the snow falls outside the church to signing “Dust and Ashes” on a cold and wet March Wednesday, or a crèche with… Read More Unchecked Boxes and Encountering God and Holiness in Lent
Read the document instead of news reports about the document. Talk to Bishops and laity who were a part of the process instead of those paid to talk about it. Remember that the age range of “youth” refers to those 16-29 but is applicable to all young people making key life decisions (late teens, 20s… Read More 10 Initial Observations on Pope Francis’ Post-Synodal Exhortation on Young People, Christus Vivit
Over the MLK holiday weekend, as I watched my Twitter feed slowly implode into a confused chaos of rage about yet another incident with a vague but obviously unpleasant narrative, I buckled up for another roller coaster surge of rage, confusion, refinement of rage, apologies, recasting of narratives, and the final digging in of heels… Read More We Can’t Let Outrage and Distrust Dominate Our National Discourse
My son Theodore was born when he was 36 weeks and 2 days old. Together, his body and mine decided that that was the time his life would transition from one lived inside the womb to one lived outside of it. His birth day was not the day that his life began, it was the… Read More We Need a Whole Life Response to Extreme Access-to-Abortion Laws
“I love the Church.” This is the answer I give when people ask me why I’m on my seventh year of school working on yet another theological degree, or when DC Uber drivers ask why I moved to the district. I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school from kindergarten through eighth grade and Catholic… Read More In the Wake of Another Crisis, Remembering Who the Church is
Eight years ago I wrote a short article about why our Church needs victim-centered reform, a reform that first listens to the victims of abuse and then takes appropriate action, without defensiveness or denial. I argued that Christ is most present to us in those victims of abuse who have long suffered in silence. In… Read More Church of Displaced Persons
Millennial 