Perspective
The First Notes: When Music and Prayer Converge
From the beginning, there was music. It signaled the parade of life — comings and goings, mornings and evenings, the chirping of birds, the clatter of dishes, and the croaking […]
Perspective
No Cell Phones, No Problems: Saluting the Digital Minimalists
It started with news from Camp Wapo, the Bible camp I’d attended as a kid. The camp counselors in Amery, Wisconsin, enforce a strict no cell-phone policy: Ditch your iPhone […]
Perspective
Counseling the Counselors: Providing More Support to Our Priests
Is there still a stigma around mental illness? Is it more pronounced among priests? The answer to those questions became resoundingly clear last summer when Paul Ruff addressed a gathering […]
Perspective
Following the Path of Inspiration
During his down time at work, a Minnesota surgeon often browses the New Yorker in the hospital library. One day he spotted its famed cartoon caption contest – a caption-less […]
Perspective
Digital detox: how to guard the mind and slow the pace
It was time. Time to get away, to unplug, to finally write that novel. Time to prove he could resist the barrage of texts and tweets, news and notifications in […]
Perspective
Catholic entrepreneurs take the leap
Matt Martinusen lost his job at a precarious time. He was the sole breadwinner, and his wife, Lisa, a stay-at-home mom, had just had their third baby. The non-profit Matt […]
Perspective
Writing in the attic: the Catholic call to creativity
The idea came in a dream. It was just like the movies, the fantasy of every writer who has slogged away at a keyboard, awaiting inspiration. Haley Stewart’s came. “I […]
Perspective
Frost fair: creating something new in the dead of winter
The latest book by Sam Usher stopped me in my tracks. I’ve devoured the children’s books brilliantly illustrated by this Chicago dad, and the title of his new release immediately […]
Perspective
The thrifting Catholic: giving new life to old things
Emily Hannon was surprised by the children’s clothes she saw at big-box stores and popular websites when she became a mom. And not in a good way: Obnoxious graphics, offensive […]
Perspective
Bread, wine and a Norway spruce: the sacramental life
Before there were any buildings in Rockefeller Center, there was a Christmas tree. At the peak of the Great Depression, construction workers hungering for holiday cheer pooled their money to […]
Perspective
Rejection letters and the spiritual life
Just as “Tiger King” became a defining show of our early quarantine days and “Bridgerton” carried us through the first COVID-19 winter, “Squid Game” has dominated this fall. It’s not […]
Perspective
Bedtime stories of saints: comfort and companionship
We never really outgrow the desire for a bedtime story. It just takes different forms when we’re older: Netflix, the evening news, Instagram stories. But the original cannot be improved […]