Lent and Taxes
An unjust law is no law. And I would offer the proposition that the current tax system is unjust.
Whatever Happened to Lent?
A New Idea of Lent has invaded the entire Church. A gauzy altruism has taken the place of a rigorous program of penance and prayer.
The Gaze That Burns Twice
Why not use the time of Lent to help speed things along for those in purgatory who, while saved, are yet not fully ready to reach across the finish line where the final Epiphany awaits them?
Let Children Aim High This Lent
We should see our children’s youth not as a hindrance to bold acts of love, but as an asset.
The Good News About Fasting
This Lent, let us prepare in body, mind, and spirit and seek grudging acceptance of a holistically life-giving relationship with the virtue of fasting.
Lenten Devotions in the Home (Guest: Suzan Sammons)
Eric Sammons is joined by his wife Suzan to talk about growing up as a cradle Catholic, how they met, and her new book on Lent.
What Eastern Christianity Can Teach Us During Lent
Penance has been a staple of Christianity from the beginning. But over the thousands of years since our beginning, various Christian communities have reflected upon this essential practice in divergent ways.
You Need to Fast More
Is modern man not cut out to fast? Should we only strive to achieve the Church’s very minimal standard of fasting?
Countering Assaults on Innocence This Lent
What we might perceive as an insignificant sacrifice God can use to achieve something grand.
Make Lent the Great Fast Again
Lent used to be a truly penitential time of the year for Catholics, but now we just talk about giving up chocolate or “fasting from judging.” How can Catholics reclaim Lent and make it truly a time to prepare for Easter?
On Comfort and Tribulation
St. Thomas More’s A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation is a classic of prison literature. Arrested in 1534, More wrote his Dialogue while in the Tower of London during that same year, as he awaited his trial and execution the following summer. More’s book deserves attention this Holy Week as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to … Read more
Joining Our Lady at the Foot of the Cross
Very early in this Lent of 2020, we celebrate a votive Mass, which invites us to take our place at the foot of the Cross with the Mother of Sorrows. Popular piety has identified seven “dolors” of the Blessed Virgin: the prophecy of Simeon; the flight into Egypt; the loss of the Boy Jesus; the … Read more
Declining Sacramental Life of the Church an Alarming Trend
Where are you headed? This is not just a question the cabbie asks when you get into his car in a big city somewhere in America. It is also a question we ask ourselves as Catholics. With Lent in progress, we know the answer: We are headed to Easter and we get there by following the … Read more
A Review of Robert Frost’s “In Neglect” for Lent
When Robert Frost forswore both academic degrees and farm life to write poetry, he wrote a poem about himself and his wife as a response to the disappointment of his family. The poem is called “In Neglect,” and it describes well anyone who spent their Lent in a worthy manner. “In Neglect,” both brief and … Read more
To Fast Well, Understand Hunger
I’ve spent about two-thirds of the Lents of the last few decades either pregnant or nursing. In other words, holding a get-out-of-fasting-free card. But since my late 40s just rolled around, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to draw that card again. Which is why I had to face the truth last Lent that I’m … Read more
Tuning in to the Call of God
“When God calls you to do something,” the speaker cautioned, “your only response is, yes.” I saw a number of heads nodding in agreement, but I sensed a question stirring in the heads of others: “But how do I know when God is calling?” It’s an important question. In fact, there is no question more … Read more
“Bless Me Father For I Have Sinned”
Vainly do men of our time seek remedies for the cultural maladies affecting us. Each exertion of the political elite or the bien pensant only seem to deepen their woes. Faced with such existential crisis modern men seek corrupting escapes or the violence of bankrupt political extremism. Indeed, these things assume the kind of devotion … Read more
This Lent, What Tops Your Bucket List?
Lent is a season that brings us full face with the Great Paradox: To live, I must die. It is a supreme spiritual truth meant not to paralyze us, but to prompt us to ponder: “In dying, how should I live?” In the last few years, the hanging statement, “Before I die I want to … Read more
The Desert Fathers and the Geography of the Human Heart
“The crown of the monk is humility.” ∼ Abba Orr, Desert Father, fourth century. The Lenten season is well underway and it would be difficult to find devotional writings more aligned with the spirit of Lent than the words of the Desert Fathers. Two volumes come to mind: The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, translated by … Read more
Lent and the Great Paradox
As eighteenth century English writer Samuel Johnson might have put it, “Nothing concentrates the mind like knowing that I am dust, and to dust I shall return.” And nothing is a more bracing reminder of that reality than the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. Placed on the forehead in the form of the cross, … Read more