Podcast

Today we celebrate the Resurrection, the greatest of our Church’s feasts. That makes it the perfect opportunity to think about what I call “faith encounters.” There is a rich variety in the different Evangelists’ scriptural accounts of that first Easter. There are, to be sure, differences in the details of Jesus’ appearances to Peter, Mar...

Robert Ellsberg sits down with Author, Carolyn Y. Woo, to discuss Rising, Learning from Women’s Leadership in Catholic Ministries. Through reflection on first-person narratives of a range of women involved in leadership positions in Catholic ministries (social justice, LCWR and religious congregations, educational, media, diocesan, NGOs, etc.), R...

On Palm Sunday we begin our intimate Holy Week journey with Jesus. On this occasion I recall a moving experience from the Philippines, where I spent 52 years in mission. It was during the visit of Pope Francis in January 2015. He came to accompany the people who had been so badly devastated by a typhoon. In Tacloban City on January 17, 2015, the Po...

I have observed a recurring theme among the different groups that I accompanied in mission: the inability to accept that God forgives us completely and has lifted the burden of guilt once we recognize our sins and repent. For many of us, it is easier to believe in a God ever-ready to punish us than to believe in a merciful God who goes the extra mi...

Martin Luther King and The Trumpet of Conscience Today wrestles with the parts of King’s vision that have historically been the most uncomfortable for white Americans. The lectures that comprise “The Trumpet of Conscience” are a powerful critique of the triple American evils of racism, the scourge of poverty, and the horrors of war. In light ...

“Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written...

Thursday of the Third Week of LentLk 11:14-23But he knew their thoughts and said to them,“Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid wasteand house will fall against house.And if Satan is divided against himself,how will his kingdom stand?"...

Memorial of Saint Patrick, bishopLk 5:1-11For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized himand all those with him,and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,who were partners of Simon.Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid;from now on you will be catching men."When they brought their boats to the shore,they left everything and fo...

One-on-One interview by Robert Ellsberg with Thomas H. Groome about his new book, What Makes Education Catholic: Spiritual Foundations.In this readable and timely work, Thomas Groome explores the basis of Catholic education, from the historical Jesus to figures like Augustine and Aquinas, Angela Merici, Elizabeth Seton, and Mary Ward. Groome shows ...

“More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ...

“So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17Imagine for a moment an archbishop voluntarily living as a homeless man. In the inspirational novel The Homeless Bishop by Joseph E. Girzone, (Orbis Books), modern-day Archbishop Carlo Brunini ventures on a journey of ho...

When Socrates was on trial for impiety, he was famously quoted as having said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Words to live by as Ash Wednesday approaches.As a child I learned how to examine my conscience before confession. Later in college, my Jesuit teachers taught me about self-examination using the discernment exercises of Ignat...