Thinking about joy, it has always seemed to me, is like trying to catch a dandelion puffball drifting on a summer breeze. The closer you get to it, the more it escapes your grasp. But something made me reflect on it when the sun rose in crimson splendor this morning.

Even in spirituality, the word "detachment" makes us think of feeling diffident and rather uninterested. In a word, "detached." But this feeling is not the true experience of spiritual detachment.

We are so used to hearing about the "Big Bang" that it hard to remember two rather significant things about it. If this gets too boring, skip to the last paragraph...

The pope whom the Lord has given us differs from any pope in my lifetime ...

This is how Jesus begins His prayer to the Father: "Father, the hour has come."...

The last, long discourse reported in the Gospel of John gets punctuated by disciples’ questions. These begin with different words.

When Jesus says that Mary had chosen “the better part,” He raises a couple of issues not always explained very convincingly in commentaries (Luke 10). First, what “part” had Martha chosen? ...

When you think about Nicodemus and read John 3, it’s easy to get stuck on the rabbi Nicodemus’ need to keep his discipleship quiet. Lots of commentators weave some solid and insightful commentaries on it. Some of them add it was Nicodemus who suggested that the Sanhedrin might give Jesus a formal trial before they condemn him. Took courage to say that out loud. But not a lot of them add ...

All of the prayers assigned to the liturgy – the Eucharist and the breviary – on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus focus on the Christ. The focus makes good sense, since we are trying to remember that God’s love is so infinite as to be unimaginable and so intimate as to be unbearable without the Spirit’s help.
 
On the other hand, the focus on the Heart is meant to make sure we know that Jesus is not only the Christ but is also of Nazareth. He was born of His lady Mother and held by the one she called “your father,” Joseph son of David.
 

When we sin, we know that God cares because we feel guilt. We feel God's displeasure - that's what our guilt really is.

Well, why are we so slow to feel God's pleasure when we do good - when we go about doing His will? ...