October 31, 2025 | A Word to Enkindle, Fr. John Bayer
“Finding God in the ecotone of faith and life” by Fr. John for The Texas Catholic. As Catholics, how should we imagine our relationship with the world? We often talk about “walls” and “doors” and “bridges” to explain how the Church should either connect to...
October 6, 2025 | A Word to Enkindle, Fr. Thomas Esposito
“And lead us not into temptation” by Fr. Thomas for Texas Catholic. In the last decade, the liturgical versions of the Our Father have been changed in both French and Italian to soften the apparent harshness of this petition. The French translation is now...
September 29, 2025 | A Word to Enkindle, Fr. John Bayer
“‘The Benedict Option’” by Fr. John for The Texas Catholic. Rod Dreher’s “The Benedict Option” (2017) has been on my list of things to read for a long time. As a Cistercian monk rooted in the Benedictine tradition and apostolically engaged as a priest and...
September 8, 2025 | A Word to Enkindle, Fr. Thomas Esposito
“And forgive us for our trespasses as we forgive…” by Fr. Thomas for Texas Catholic. This petition is the most scandalous of them all. The verb tenses reveal the heart of the matter. A literal translation of Matthew’s version reads, “Forgive us our debts...
August 25, 2025 | A Word to Enkindle, Fr. John Bayer
“Looking for signs of discernment” by Fr. John for The Texas Catholic. I recently read a book about discernment and the spiritual life that I’d recommend to just about anyone but especially to the young: Stacey Sumereau, “Adventure Awaits: How to Interpret...
July 27, 2025 | A Word to Enkindle, Fr. Thomas Esposito
“‘Give us this day our daily bread’” by Fr. Thomas for Texas Catholic. My ideal translation of this phrase would be “Give us our ‘supersubstantial’ bread today.” That would sound gloriously awkward at Mass, and ‘supersubstantial’ would be a liturgical...
