If you’ve spent some time reading catechetical materials or hanging around theological circles, you’ve likely heard the venerable maxim that Catholicism is the religion of both/and.
The Easter Vigil is a solemn celebration of Christ’s glorious redemption of humanity. But at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City this year, it was also the scene of something else: a disruption in the name of a social cause.
If you use the restroom in a certain brightly-colored, Mexican-themed bar in Chicago’s Old Town, you’ll be greeted by a seemingly chill and flippant question on the door:
“Who cares?”
Music plays an important role in lifting our hearts and minds to God — something we’re especially reminded of during these Advent and Christmas seasons.
The gates of hell will never prevail against the Church — and yet the body of Christ can often seem to be on the brink of some kind of calamity or disaster. This can be experienced at the level of a local parish, diocese, or even at the level of the universal Church.
We all know that hitting rock bottom is one of the surest ways of recognizing our need for God. When every other sense of security, comfort and competence has been stripped away, we are more able to see the stark reality that was and is and has always been the case: At the end of the day, God is all we have.
“Bugs are so dumb.”
That was my immediate takeaway from a video that showed up on my Twitter feed, advertising a new kind of light-based bug zapper. Apparently, the device uses light to draw even the most pesky of pests — mosquitoes — to their electrified death.
I’d say I know the four men who were just ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul on May 27 better than most. And for good reason: I was actually in the same seminary class with three of them before I discerned out.
