Where did I—and you—learn Communion through human relationships? I learned it in Oakville, Missouri at Queen of All Saints Catholic Church: on Catholic Youth Council (CYC) sports teams, at De Smet Jesuit High School, and through my family. I was grateful for these loving communities. I still am. They inspired many moments of joy and… Read More Growing Up White in White Spaces: Incomplete Glimpses of Trinitarian Communion

Our Predicament In these past few months, which have unpropitiously—or, perhaps, fortuitously and providentially—included the holiest days of the Christian year—the Triduum—American Catholics have found themselves in the unusual predicament of having regular access to Mass unavailable to them. Even in typing out that overlong sentence, it becomes clear how narrowly—geographically and historically speaking—widespread access… Read More Second Line Remembering: Toward a Theology of Zoom Liturgies

Being quarantined in one’s home during an international pandemic is not necessarily the best time and place to be making decisions about one’s career path. And yet I, along with several friends my age, have been plagued by the question of what we are going to be doing with the rest of our lives (excuse… Read More Career Crises in Quarantine: Facing the Millennial Drama with Christ

What does it mean to be a minister in contemporary society? Henri Nouwen posed this question in 1972, nearly 50 years ago, as the opening sentence to The Wounded Healer. The world was not under lockdown, but his analysis of the modern person is called into stark relief in a world grieving and fighting a… Read More The Wounded Healer in a Time of Pandemic

It was the middle of Lent when the general public of the United States realized, in a dramatic and sudden fashion, that we were facing a global pandemic. As businesses closed, jobs were lost, physical contact was cut off, and schedules and calendars dramatically altered, the human race found itself in a seemingly unprecedented, universal… Read More In a Pandemic, Our Whole Lives Are Sacramental and Liturgical

Ignatian spirituality teaches that everything begins and ends with the love of God. To put it simply: we were created to love and be loved. As I watched the movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, I was reminded how Fred Rogers’ lived and believed this simple truth. As a person who experienced his own insecurities as a… Read More You’re Loved Just the Way You Are