Intellect and Virtue

Hope in things unseen

We need God’s help, but spiritual talk is unfashionable. The idea that God is active in our lives is equally unfashionable. And yet if he is not, there is nothing to hope for.

Changing the music, but not the message

So what explains the pope’s popularity, even in matters sartorial, in the face of these secularizing trends and growing public embarrassment over religiosity?

The fog and the mystics

Why is it that saints and mystics are shrouded in fog when they approach God? An anonymous 14th-century English mystic called it “the cloud of unknowing.”

Jean Valjean and immigration reform

As in “Les Miserables,” the crime illegal immigrants have committed is often motivated by a desire to feed a family. We must be careful of adopting a resolute, unforgiving, uphold-the-law-at-all-costs approach.

The vital partnership between generations

Today’s workers pay for today’s retirees and ask the next generation to support them. But we’re asking too much of the next generation.

Different generation brings different way of parenting

Is the world more dangerous than it was two generations ago? Do our children love their children more than our parents loved us? Are there more bad people out there or greater environmental hazards?

Higher education and ‘breaking good’

“Breaking Bad” is a television series on AMC about a high school chemistry teacher who becomes a drug kingpin. It has quickly become a favorite of mine. Educator Walter White puts his chemistry skills to work in his own meth lab after he learns he has advanced-stage lung cancer and just two years to live. His teaching job, he reasons, will not provide nearly enough for his pregnant wife and his son, who has cerebral palsy.

Reputation, the Hall of Fame and real character

Not one baseball player was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. It was a shutout, only the second one in 40 years.

Lessons from spending time outside a linguistic empire

What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. And three languages? Trilingual. And someone who speaks just one language? An American, of course.

Archbishop Sheen and ‘ultimate reality’ television

Recently, the Congregation for Saints’ Causes recognized the life of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen as one of heroic virtue and granted him the title “venerable.” It is a step toward beatification. He now needs a miracle attributed to his intercession to proceed.

Fasting can help us develop better spiritual muscles

As I write this column, I am sitting in a hotel room in Santiago, Chile. I’ve been up all night because my flight was delayed and I missed a connection in Panama City. The airline also lost my bag, so I am without a change of clothes, my toothbrush and my computer.
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