Category: Articles
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Real, Solid, and Unbending: The Life and Legacy of Sir John Moore
He was good-natured and had a quick wit, making him a desirable addition to social circles. His integrity was said to be beyond reproach, and his word was his bond. Read more
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The Talk of the Three-in-One: Meditations on the Trinity
To be Trinitarian, to be Incarnational, is to me to seek out the Lover, Beloved, and Love in everything, to see the image of God generously incarnating in this world through so many signs and wonders, simple and extraordinary. Read more
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Abraham’s Sacrifice: Reflections from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Both Jewish and Muslim traditions of the story, and the places connected to them, have their own unique ability to capture different angles of this radical example of self-sacrifice… Read more
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Mary and Fatima: Reflections on the Sacred Feminine in Christianity and Islam
Both Mary and Fatima are seen, in their respective traditions, as “queens of paradise.” And what is a queen of paradise? Perhaps it has less to do with crowns and scepters, and more to do with a certain fullness of being, a height of proximity to the divine light. Read more
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Easter to Me: A Personal Reflection on Holy Week
My childhood memories of Holy Week, when Christians the world over commemorate the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, are a kaleidoscope of images and impressions, turning from lighter colors to deepening hues. Read more
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For the Glory of the Marines: The Life and Legacy of Major John Pitcairn
Major John Pitcairn was a man of many facets and paradoxes. In my exploration of his character over the course of my novel-writing, I have come to deeply respect his courage in battle, competence in his responsibilities, and humanity towards those under his command and even those who were opposed to him. Read more
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Paschal Mystery: The Death of God and the Paradox of Salvation
All sin, in a sense, “wounds” God, causes rifts in our relationship with Him. We pierce Him through the heart, and each other through our hearts, constantly. It has real consequences, and real restitution must be made before reconciliation can take place. Read more
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Star of the Sea: Marian Devotion through the Prism of a Medieval Hymn
I find particular inspiration in the soaring poetry of the Middle Ages in honor of the Virgin and believe it to be a wonderful method of sharing the Catholic understanding of Mary’s place in the Christian life and why we pay her homage. Read more
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Christ in a Waiting Room: An Early Spring Spiritual Epiphany
The painting showed the body of Christ being taken down by the cross, about to be placed in the arms of the sorrowing mother, and all at once I imagined the tears trickling down her face and the blood trickling from his heart, and it felt that everything around me dissolved in that one moment. Read more
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Our Love Must Make Us Strong: The Music and Mysticism of Loreena McKennitt
While no single religion may be able to claim Loreena for their own, I think there is no doubt that she is a deeply spiritually aware person, and has led others to search for God and the meaning of existence through her music. Read more
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Slaves, Sons, and Submission: Christian and Muslim Understandings of God
I believe it’s fair to say that all three of the Abrahamic faiths see God as both transcendent and imminent, and also see His attributes in a way that encompasses both justice and mercy… Read more
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C.S. Lewis and the Calormenes: A Commentary on Narnia’s Arabesque Baddies
If Lewis had really wanted to do an analysis of the Christian and Muslim theological gap, he should have had both groups worship “The Emperor Across the Sea”, and then have differing views on Aslan… Read more
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Day of Wrath: Sweeney Todd and the Search for Salvation
Perversely, Sweeney seems to believe this type of purging will be his “salvation”, which he sings in the jarringly brilliant number “Epiphany”, as he challenges men to come and sit in his barber chair and be “welcome to the grave.” Read more
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Scour the Horse Anew: An Analysis of G.K. Chesterton’s Epic Poem “The Ballad of the White Horse”
This, perhaps, is one of Chesterton’s most profound and timeless messages to the Christian world: Fight on, even though the days grow darker yet, and know that the Great Battle has already been won by Christ the King. Read more
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God’s Good Chaos: A Reflection on the Problem of Evil
I do not believe every movement of the natural world as it carries out its prescribed functions is so much predestined as permitted, and yet it is the “backdrop” of our own ability to grow, to relate, to love, to move, to have our being. Read more
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Adam, Christ, and Evolution: Seeking Meaning in Our Primordial Past
The very fact that we are able to say “Thou” to God means that we are able to disobey and reject Him, to turn away from the “Eden” of spiritual union with Him and choose our own path of disorder. Read more
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Come, My Love: An Analysis of Thomas Merton’s Mystical Poem “Pass Through My Will”
The poem calls for the coming of the Divine Lover, as “all through the night I lay longing, eagerly to wait for love’s union”. There is no shame in this, but rather a reveling in the anticipation as it was meant to be, not cheap, not base, but holistic between body and soul. Read more
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Building a Bridge and Drawing a Line: A Way Forward for Traditional Religious and LGBT Communities
I believe in a kind of “live and let live” approach, trying hard to walk the tight-rope of respecting each other’s freedom and boundaries. Perhaps we need, more than anything, to get more comfortable with the presence of the other… Read more
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Pilgrimage to a Small Island: A Britophile’s Memoir
Oh, my little island, do I have to go away so soon? There are too many fragile, aching sentiments left in me now, and I keep hunting for you everywhere I go. Read more
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Love Goes On and On: Growing Up with Disney’s “Robin Hood”
Robin Hood, the animated feature, continues to shine brightly in all of its childlike innocence, and yet still manages to capture the paradox of the Christian message – the defiance of it, the inverse reality of the last being first, and the first last. Read more