Contemplation and Laity
by Mark BauerleinZena Hitz joins the podcast to discuss her new book, A Philosopher Looks at the Religious Life. Continue Reading »
The Nun from Nigeria Sits Next to Me at the College Jazz Concert
by Marjorie MaddoxFace blank as absolution, from this back rowshe stares straight ahead to the small raised stageof touring musicians, lost in the rebel notes they soldtheir . . . . Continue Reading »
Hawthorne’s Daughter
by Patricia SnowIn 1891, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, was received into the Catholic Church. She was forty years old. Within a few years of her conversion she conceived a heroic ministry to destitute cancer patients at a time when cancer was believed to be contagious. She . . . . Continue Reading »
The Pro-Natalist Case for Nuns
by Alexi SargeantThe witness and work of the celibate supports a culture of life. Continue Reading »
Friendship in a Time of Scandal
by L. S.Substantive male-female friendships are hard to attempt, especially in a culture that idolizes sexual pleasure as the only salient human connection. Continue Reading »
Such a Wreckage
by Dan HitchensJohn Bradburne—the saintly ascetic murdered in 1979 while caring for lepers in Rhodesia—was also the most prolific poet in the English language. Continue Reading »
Taken, Blessed, Broken, Given
by Sr. Alicia TorresDepending on divine providence opened up a whole new world of possibilities in the kitchen, and prepared me for Chopped—and for serving God's children. Continue Reading »
Hypervisible Church
by Catherine AddingtonWhen a nun is stopped on the street, it is often so that a person can work out their issues with the Church, not with her. And when Fr. Jacques Hamel is made to kneel and die, it is the Church that is attacked in his body. Continue Reading »
“Must be the Recession”
by Fr. Dominic BouckOne thing that I’ve heard from several people when I mention the surge in Dominican vocations (and the surge of many dioceses and orders male and female) is “Oh, it must be the recession.” Truly, I have not met one religious who set aside marital joys, self-determination, and wealth . . . . Continue Reading »
Dismantling the Cross
by Patricia SnowGenerally speaking, there are two principal vocations in the life of the Catholic Church: marriage on the one hand, and celibate priesthood and religious life on the other. Both are expressions of conjugal love. In the normal calling of marriage, an individual binds himself for life to another human . . . . Continue Reading »
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