A Word to Enkindle
Drawing life from the side of Jesus
A Word to Enkindle, March 18, 2024
“Drawing life from the side of Jesus” by Fr. John for The Texas Catholic. I’ve celebrated several baptisms lately, and I think I’ve realized something beautiful about the sacraments: We come to new life through a mystical embrace, through sacramental contact with the “side” of Jesus. John the Evangelist testifies to the “blood and water” […]
The mystery of your priestly sacrifices
A Word to Enkindle, February 29, 2024
No easy interpretation of Genesis 22 exists. The account of God’s test of Abraham is truly awe-ful. It gives us no psychological insights into the heart of Abraham or Isaac, and the sparse narrative details — the three days’ journey, the binding of Isaac upon the altar, the dramatic angelic intervention to stay Abraham’s knife — are terrifying in their raw simplicity. Yet these verses offer wondrous cause for meditation on the mystery of sacrifice.
Looking for Prophets
A Word to Enkindle, February 09, 2024
My impression is that many people today think we live in unprecedented and negative times. They feel afraid as they watch ideologies make bold moves for economic and political power.
In a certain basic sense, it is hard for me to agree that our times are unprecedented. The Church must struggle in every age, and we just don’t have that divine vision which would allow us to compare, definitively or apocalyptically, our own age with any other. On the other hand, I can easily understand the feeling that things are urgent; after all, these are our times, and so we are, quite rightly, sensitive to their dramatic character.
Learning from ‘Las Posadas’
A Word to Enkindle, January 12, 2024
“Learning from ‘Las Posadas’” by Fr. John for The Texas Catholic. This Christmas I had the very edifying experience of attending for the first time a celebration of Las Posadas. The celebration was organized by Puede Network, a youth empowerment organization in Oak Cliff that strives to help especially underserved minority students access transformative programs in academics, […]
Notes on faith, love, and hope
A Word to Enkindle, November 17, 2023
St. Paul seems to have defined the triad we know today as the theological virtues: faith, hope, and love.
Lay engagement in the synod and beyond
A Word to Enkindle, November 02, 2023
“Lay engagement in the synod and beyond” by Fr. John for The Texas Catholic. As a member of the synod preparatory commission, one of the exciting things I have seen is the synergy between clergy and laity in our diocese. Of course, we are still a pilgrim people, and the data we received from the […]
Musings on dignity and profane language
A Word to Enkindle, October 19, 2023
Profane and profanity are English words commonly used in reference to swearing, cursing, and hurling abusive language at someone. That’s an intriguing development from their Latin roots! A fanum is a temple or a sanctuary; attach the preposition pro to it, and you get “before/in front of/ outside the temple.”
Language that is not fitting to be heard in the presence of the divine, therefore, is unholy, not sacred: literally, profane.
The Witness of Little Souls, Part 3
A Word to Enkindle, October 17, 2023
This is my third column in a series on the premature death of children.
Adoration always personal and communal
A Word to Enkindle, September 26, 2023
The current Eucharistic Revival in the United States is generating a discussion of the role of Eucharistic Adoration in the life of the Church.
The Witness of Little Souls, Part 2
A Word to Enkindle, September 17, 2023
In my last column, I reflected on the beautiful witness offered by children who were miscarried or stillborn. Now, I’d like to reflect on their parents.