Article How to Fell a Tree What are the costs and dignities found in physical labor? By Mark Phillips February 12, 2018 Domestic Affairs Spirituality Books
Article A Communion of Sinners & Saints Before becoming a communion of saints we are first of all a communion of sinners By Jerry Ryan February 8, 2018 Spirituality
Article The Comedy in Ash & Roses Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day coincide this year like a bad joke, but there is truth in it By B. D. McClay February 5, 2018 Liturgy Spirituality
Article A Burial at Gethsemani Contemplating our mortality can draw us deeper into our communities By Gregory Hillis February 3, 2018 Death and Dying Spirituality U.S. Catholicism The Last Word Religious Life
Article Teilhard’s Gamble Teilhard is a genius, a unique and providential combination of the scientist and the mystic By Thomas Merton January 30, 2018 Evolution From the Archives Spirituality Theology
Article The ‘Honest to God’ Debate Thomas Merton takes issue with Anglican Bishop J. A. T. Robinson’s book that argues that the Christian image has become inadequate in the modern world By Thomas Merton January 30, 2018 Theology Secularism and Modernity Spirituality From the Archives
Article Monk & Hunters Am I a monk the same way he is a hunter? By Thomas Merton January 30, 2018 Spirituality Religious Life From the Archives
Article Schoolboy in England Like practically everyone else in our stupid and godless society, I was to consider these two years as “my religious phase.” By Thomas Merton January 30, 2018 Spirituality
Feature Active & Contemplative Orders Is there a paradox between the active and contemplative lives? By Thomas Merton January 29, 2018 Spirituality Religious Life Theology From the Archives
Article Reality, Art, & Prayer Art is not an end in itself. It introduces the soul into a higher spiritual order By Thomas Merton January 29, 2018 Spirituality Arts
Article Elegy for A Trappist “Maybe the martyrology until today / Has found no fitting word to describe you” By Thomas Merton January 29, 2018 Poetry Spirituality
Feature Is Mysticism Normal? Is mysticism just for some extraordinary souls? By Thomas Merton January 29, 2018 Spirituality From the Archives
Article The Psalms as Poetry The function of the Psalms is to make us share in the poetic experience of the men who wrote them By Thomas Merton January 29, 2018 Poetry Spirituality From the Archives
Article Poetry: Eight Distillations “He talked of nothingness until it wasn’t. / He bragged his gravity into God.” By Christian Wiman January 24, 2018 Poetry Spirituality
Article Don’t Over-Spiritualize ‘Temptation’ When we pray to be spared temptation, we’re asking for something very practical By Nicholas Frankovich January 17, 2018 Pope Francis Spirituality Theology Liturgy
Article ‘Be Such as God Made You’ Rethinking the spirituality of body image with some help from the ancient church By Amanda C. Knight January 11, 2018 Spirituality Theology Women in the Church The Last Word
Article A Christmas When Music Invited Me In Life is short, the world beautiful, and love urgently necessary By Rand Richards Cooper December 21, 2017 Music Spirituality
Article Chalkware Theology By building a new crèche each year for his community, one professor highlights the sacramentality of the everyday By Michael DeSanctis December 16, 2017 Arts Spirituality
Article A Burnt-Out Case The spiritual costs of the way we work By Jonathan Malesic December 14, 2017 Spirituality Theology
Feature Wonders Never Cease How the modern period arose and how it has become another era, and in need of another name By Marilynne Robinson December 11, 2017 Secularism and Modernity Theology Spirituality
Article What Now? The future, toward which hope is always oriented, seems bleak. But grace can break through By The Editors December 5, 2017 Spirituality Donald Trump War and Peace Editorial
Article Religion Booknotes Books that speak directly to believers about the experience of faith By Luke Timothy Johnson November 28, 2017 Theology Books Spirituality
Article A Walk in the Woods Where was—where is—the Whatever to make it all okay? By Betsy Johnson-Miller November 14, 2017 Spirituality
Article Commonweal’s Best Spiritual Writing A collection of writing that wrestles with contemporary spirituality, within and without the doors of the church By The Editors October 12, 2017 Spirituality
Article Poems Against Paralysis This is a collection of movement and stillness, of the body and the spirit By Anthony Domestico October 9, 2017 Poetry Books Spirituality
Article When Art & Spirit Meet Paul Lakeland ruminates on the theology of the imagination By Edward T. Wheeler September 21, 2017 Books Arts Spirituality
Article Confront & Forgive Forgiveness, rooted in truth, is as powerful as unforgiveness is destructive By Nancy Enright September 7, 2017 Spirituality
Article The Spiritual Cost of Scandal Feelings of being cheated and taken in by our own leaders can make us more defensive and less generous By Rita Ferrone August 14, 2017 U.S. Catholicism Spirituality Sexual-abuse Crisis
Feature Prophet of Harlem Besides Claude McKay’s status as a canonical poet of the Harlem Renaissance, there’s another side of him that rarely comes into public view By Griffin Oleynick July 7, 2017 U.S. Catholicism Books Race Spirituality
Article ‘Still She Is a Wonderful Girl’ I’d come to India in 1981. Was my mother-in-law still waiting for me to become a Hindu? By Jo McGowan June 26, 2017 Columnists Spirituality
Article The Other Guy There is a certain malaise in the Catholic Church when it comes to the Holy Spirit. We do not quite know what to say. By Jerry Ryan June 21, 2017 Spirituality Theology
Article The Ignatian Option Fr. James Martin, SJ, could be the anti-Dreher—and not merely on the topic of sex and sexuality By David Cloutier June 15, 2017 Social Justice Secularism and Modernity Spirituality Books Sexuality
Feature Hallowing the Gaps God’s ineffability demands a creative use of language By Robert M. Pennoyer II June 14, 2017 Spirituality Secularism and Modernity
Article ‘Belief Does Not Embarrass Me’ Allegra Goodman talks about her new novel, Jane Austen and George Eliot, video games, and ‘believing in God and being a Jew’ By Anthony Domestico June 8, 2017 Books Web Exclusive Spirituality
Poetry Four Devotional Poems If I can see everything and find no rest—what will you do for me then? By E. J. García May 30, 2017 Poetry Spirituality
Article The Hardest Blessing How had I come to think that I would find solace on a route marked by swords? By Rebecca Collins May 22, 2017 Spirituality
Article Bread Broken Why is it important that the bread of Eucharist be “bread broken”? What does it tell us about Jesus and about the community that shares his life? By Rita Ferrone May 13, 2017 Liturgy Spirituality
Feature Leonard Cohen’s Biblical Vision If Leonard Cohen failed to live at the center of righteousness, he maintained a sense of where that center remained, and of how to find it again in prayer By Christian Raab April 27, 2017 Music Spirituality Books Book Essay
Article Policing the Communion Line You never know where God will surprise you By Fr. Nonomen April 24, 2017 Liturgy Spirituality Columnists
Article Real & Unimaginable Only a minority of Christians believe in a physical resurrection, be it Christ’s or ours. But there’s no getting away from the claim By Jerry Ryan April 24, 2017 Spirituality Theology The Last Word
Article ‘My Utmost’ by Macy Halford Macy Halford’s ‘My Utmost: A Devotional Memoir’ is a strange, wonderful, devotional book about another devotional book By John Wilson April 24, 2017 Spirituality Books
Article The Cry of Abel’s Blood How can the Crucifixion—the murder of an innocent—be redemptive? By Jerome A. Miller April 14, 2017 Theology Spirituality
Article Between Past & Future Almost everyone I know thinks the readings at the Easter Vigil are about history; I’m not convinced By Rita Ferrone April 13, 2017 Liturgy Columnists Theology Spirituality
Article Present in His Grace Reflecting on the role of an artist’s belief in making religious art By Kate Lucky April 12, 2017 Music Spirituality
Article My Idiopathic Easter A novelist with epilepsy reflects on the supposed spiritual dimension of the illness By Peter Quinn April 12, 2017 Books Spirituality
Article The Euphoria of the Dying A recognized phenomenon, although those precious moments pass quickly By Jo McGowan April 3, 2017 Death and Dying Columnists Spirituality
Article Faith at Angola Prison After ‘civic death,’ a resurrection By Michael Hallett March 30, 2017 Spirituality Domestic Affairs Social Justice
Article What Terrorists Won’t Get Losing a loved one, but refusing to hate By Regina Munch March 25, 2017 Books Terrorism Death and Dying Spirituality War and Peace Web Exclusive
Article Last Word | Unchosen Hardships For all the talk of Catholic guilt, American Catholics get off relatively easy when it comes to fasting By Lauren Kosa March 13, 2017 Spirituality
Article Hardwired for Generosity In today’s America, the idea of giving for the sake of others or a common future seems just plain out of touch By Marcia Pally March 7, 2017 Spirituality Theology Religious Life Economy
