By Fr. Sylvester Tan, SJ Alleluia, Christ is risen! Having completed the Easter octave, we find ourselves in the midst of the mysterious forty days between Christ’s resurrection and his ascension into heaven. Ignatius of Loyola notes that following the resurrection, Jesus appears to his friends – the ones who believed in him during his …
By Gretchen Crowder Twenty years later, I can still hear the crack as his knees struck the gym floor. In a high school gym in the spring of 2004, I was lying covertly behind some makeshift dividers with one hand lying close to the play button and the other hand clutching the volume dial of …
By Gretchen Crowder I have to admit, I have spent most of my life uncomfortable with the topic of death. In particular, I have spent most of my life uncomfortable with discussing my own mortality. I don’t know why. After all, I have from a very young age believed in heaven and life after death. …
Fifth Sunday of Lent: Are we comfortable engaging with our mortality? Read More »
By Gretchen Crowder I have always labeled God’s love for me as agape, but the more time I spend immersed in Ignatian Spirituality, the more I am open to considering that the best representation of God’s love for me might just be philia instead. If you are not familiar with the four Greek words for …
Fourth Sunday of Lent: Are we truly open to God’s offer of friendship? Read More »
By Fr. Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time …
By Gretchen Crowder One question has been weighing on my mind this week as I reflected on the Gospel for the 3rd Sunday of Lent: Am I comfortable with an emotional Jesus? We know Jesus experienced emotions, a wide variety of them, in fact. After all, Jesus was human, and we humans, whether we like …
Third Sunday of Lent: Can we get emotional with God? Read More »
By Gretchen Crowder I want my mountaintop experience, don’t you? I want Jesus in all his tangible humanity and intangible divinity to come right up to me, grab my hand in his, and walk me up a mountain. Then, I want to see his clothes become dazzling white with my human eyes and hear “This …
Second Sunday of Lent: Can we see ourselves as God sees us? Read More »
By Gretchen Crowder A couple weeks ago, I was introducing my senior students to Henri Nouwen by showing them a video of one of his sermons. I warned them before we began: “Just so you know, in the 90s, we really liked ferns. I think it’s what we called “creating an atmosphere” back then.” When …
A child is born for us. Yet what do those words – for us – really mean? They mean that the Son of God, the one who is holy by nature, came to make us, as God’s children, holy by grace. Yes, God came into the world as a child to make us children of …
Bells rang joyfully across the campus of Saint Louis University (SLU) on Easter Monday, April 10, as SLU’s Catholic Studies Center hosted a Eucharistic Procession. The evening began with Mass, attended by more than 200 people. Catholic Studies Director Fr. Matthew Baugh, SJ, presided, with priests and seminarians from the Jesuits, the Dominicans and Kenrick-Glennon …