I push back whenever a young woman tells me her vocation is to get married and have kids. Her vocation is not so limited. She may be called to marriage, but she’s also called to prepare for the life to come by prayer and sacrifice, by renouncing the things of this world, by thinking of what is above. Continue Reading »
Fr. Mankowski knew well what it means to serve cheerfully and obediently, even when his own vow of obedience brought much suffering. Continue Reading »
I’m grateful to you for getting in touch. Many people today would no doubt think you are strange for considering the priesthood, given the cloud that hangs over the Church. Others might congratulate you for heroism. Actually, both reactions are excessive. For a Catholic young man who is fervent in . . . . Continue Reading »
A letter to the Synod of Bishops on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment. Continue Reading »
In a recent story on the next generation of Catholic priests, Time magazine showed itself to be partisan and misinformed. Continue Reading »
Of all the speeches Pope Francis recently delivered in America, among the most inspiring was one highlighting the life of Katharine Drexel, delivered to an overflowing crowd in her own Philadelphia: Most of you know the story of Saint Katharine Drexel, one of the great saints raised up by the local . . . . Continue Reading »
The Contemporary Christian Music industry has shrunk to a third of its former size. Is dissatisfaction with a Christian copy-cat culture to blame? And what is “good” Christian art anyway?
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It took me five years of graduate school to realize that my study is a vocation. My thinking about this was prompted by finally reading A.G. Sertillanges’s The Intellectual Life, which along with Josef Pieper’s Leisure: The Basis of Culture and Elizabeth Corey’s “Learning in Love” make essential reading for anyone considering graduate work or a career in the intellectual world. Culling insights from those thinkers and from my own time in graduate school, I thought I would offer some thoughts for those beginning graduate school. Continue Reading »
Popular talk of one’s “calling” betrays a crucial misunderstanding of discernment, a cardinal error that is entirely foreign to the great tradition of the Church. Continue Reading »
Like Mary, we ought to submit to God’s sovereignty and go where he leads. Continue Reading »
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