It is late at night, almost seven hundred years ago, in the lovely central Italian region of Tuscany. Inside a small room, a young woman is speaking animatedly about God. Her hands fly back and forth, flickering in the candlelight. Opposite her, struggling to listen but barely able to remain awake, sits her confessor—a trained theologian and a saintly man. More »

I once came across a book describing the senses of deep-sea creatures that never see daylight. Some of them have rows of lights like portholes along their flanks to enable them to see both prey and predators; others create a chemical reaction in their bodies to produce bioluminescent light. It was clear that every animal is endowed with the senses it needs for survival and the instinctive skills to use them competently. More »

The gospels tell us surprisingly little about Jesus’ routine or regular practice of prayer. In what seems to have been the earliest gospel, Mark notes that after Jesus’ initial successes in calling disciples, casting out a demon, and healing Peter’s mother-in-law and many other sick people, Jesus got up early in the morning and went to pray at a deserted place (1:35). More »

The Word became flesh and lived among us" (John 1:14). Christianity is an incarnational religion. We believe that God, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, took on our humanity in the land of Israel in what we call the first century a.d. More »

The time: not long after the coming of the Spirit to the disciples on Pentecost. The place: not far from Jerusalem. The characters: a leader among the Jerusalem Christians named Philip, and an Ethiopian government official, unnamed. More »

The first time I spent the Easter holidays with my husband’s family, I participated in one of their long-established traditions. We made Easter baskets out of construction paper and filled them with candy. A family member’s name was written on the handle, and the entire basket was stashed into a plastic bag. On Saturday evening, my husband and his brother hid the baskets all over the house. More »

In Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul II singles out five saints as exceptional models of prayer. Four are well known to most Catholics. But following on the heels of Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Ignatius of Loyola comes a name that leaves many of us scratching our heads. Who is St. Seraphim of Sarov? More »

Brian was a happy fifth-grader who related well, enjoyed learning, and accepted his parents’ Christian values. Then he changed schools. More »