“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Romans 7:19). In these words, St. Paul beautifully captures a struggle we all know: that feeling of wanting to do good, yet finding ourselves falling short. It’s not that we don’t know what’s right; rather,…
If You Have To Be Sure
In a poem about the Pulitzer Prize winning writer John Berryman, the poet W.S. Merlin writes: “I asked how can you ever be sure that what you write is really any good at all and he said you can’t you can’t you can never be sure you die without knowing whether anything you wrote was…
Possibility, Hope, and Potential
Tommy Tomlinson writes: “You might have heard the story about the director JJ Abrams, who has created (among many other things) the TV series LOST and FELICITY, and directed two of the last three STAR WARS movies. When Abrams was a kid, he went to a magic store and bought a Mystery Box—a box with…
Competition
Our culture often frames life as a relentless competition: whose children are most accomplished, whose alma mater boasts the most victories, whose family dynamics appear picture-perfect, and even, disturbingly, whose Lenten observance is most impressive. We find ourselves measuring sacrifices, community service hours, and prayer time against others, as if these were points on a…
The Alien, Widow, and Child
If you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow … then I will dwell with you in this place…. — Jeremiah 7:6. This verse exposes the timeless human tendency to marginalize the vulnerable: the refugee seeking sanctuary, the child deprived of security, and the widow left desolate. Even in the context of…