Carol Zaleski
Theology face down
Rites that include prostration make a striking impression. It's not often that one sees a fellow human in an act of total self-surrender.
Forty years of needlework
The Plymouth Needlers have finished their work: four giant embroideries, each made to a design by legendary illustrator Pauline Baynes.
Meeting Adam
I dreamed of meeting Adam in heaven. He wasn't hard to recognize; he looked like my great-uncle Harold, with the weight of his years melted off.
He led captivity captive
Among Gospel epitomes I
especially love the Jesus prayer, the Agnus Dei and "When he ascended on high,
he led captivity captive"--the good news as I first heard it from Paul
(Ephesians 4:8) and Christ's Jubilee proclamation (Luke 4:18).
The memory of God
We can't remember Jesus the way we can remember, say, Bonhoeffer or the lavishly photographed St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
Saved by Tintin
One has only to look at Tintin, his round face animated by the simplest imaginable features, to know that he is the ultimate Boy Scout.
Virtues of knowing
The pastor was prepared for questions about the Transfiguration. Instead, one first grader asked, "what does 'obviously' mean?"
The mass finds its voice
If reception of the new translation of the Roman missal is as generous as it should be, the
period of adjustment will be a chance to rediscover the shape of the
liturgy and the essentials of Christian belief and hope.
C. S. Lewis’s Aeneid
For C.S. Lewis, Virgil prepared the way for all subsequent Christian epics by changing the subject from the adolescent theme
of heroism to the adult theme of vocation.
The great EB
This spring marks the 100th anniversary of the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, generally considered the greatest manifestation of the "Great EB."
Mysteries of February
This month could be consecrated to all hidden preparations, to children in the womb and to those who long to conceive. In February all is potency, awaiting God's redeeming act.
Something from nothing
Early modern versions of the argument from design relied upon a simple analogy: the universe looks like an artifact, which implies a maker. But as David Hume pointed out, one would need experience observing universes being made to judge that the analogy holds true.
Pilgrim's progress: Spiritual adventures
Having lived in the town of Jonathan Edwards and his grandfather Solomon Stoddard for some 20 years, I’ve come to feel a kinship to the 17th- and 18th-century Puritan divines—as if they...
Slow-motion conversion
It is by living and dying that one becomes a theologian, Martin Luther said....
For shame: Only God can set it right
In the Bible, the ambiguity of shame is unmistakable.
Beauty and delight: Artistic humility
My mother studied painting at the New York Art Students League with Joseph Solman, the American artist who died last year at age 99....
A letter to Anselm: A latticework on which to grow
Dear Father Anselm: It’s been 900 years since that dawn of April 21, Wednesday in Holy Week, when you fell asleep in Christ....