Discover

Ages of human history have often been named after the materials that our ancestors mastered at that time: stone, bronze or iron. If future archaeologists do the same for us, what material might they choose to define the 21st Century? Silicon? Plastic? Both are candidates, shaping the world for better and for worse. But if the decision were based on scale alone, then there can be only one answer: we are living in the age of concrete. There are few human-made substances on Earth that are quite so ubiquitous. Concrete is what the philosopher-ecologist Timothy Morton calls a “hyperobject” – something so enormous and widespread that it cannot be fully contemplated with the mental faculties that we have. If you attempt to picture the entirety of the world’s concrete in the mind...

The Gospel this Sunday speaks to us of the priority of personal prayer. In last week’s Gospel, Jesus sent the apostles out two by two to proclaim the Kingdom. Now they return, eager to report their progress and the graces they encountered. As Jesus listens, He urges them (perhaps because they are so overjoyed) to come away and rest awhile, for they have labored long. In so doing, Jesus also teaches us about prayer. Let’s consider four teachings on prayer that are evident in today’s Gospel. I. The Practice of Praise-Filled Prayer – As the text opens, the apostles are with Jesus, joyfully recounting all they experienced on their missionary journey. In a similar text in Luke (10:17), the apostles return rejoicing, saying that even demons are subject to them (through Jesus’ name). Thus, their ...

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time Today I will be speaking to you about why the Jewish calendar is different from our own, about why this Sunday is of special significance in Jewish history, and about the enduring faithfulness of our Lord towards his people. Like many ancient cultures, the Jews kept a lunar calendar, while we, and most of the world today, follow a particular solar calendar. Our modern calendar is called the Gregorian Calendar, instituted by Pope Gregory XII in 1582. For the Gregorian Calendar, one orbit around the Sun makes one year, counted as 365 days (or 366 days in a leap year). The Jewish calendar, instead, is focused on the Moon: one cycle of the Moon through its phases makes one month, counted as 29 or 30 days. Because the cycles of the Sun and Moon do not perfectly matc...

By Tom Hoopes, July 15, 2021 This Sunday, the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B, the readings show us how we should behave in the world when we feel like we are walking through a dark valley with God far off and no one but weak and wicked shepherds to guide us. In the Gospel, Jesus heads off to rest a while. We should be like the crowds who won’t let him rest. Jesus’ words Sunday are among the most refreshing in the Gospel: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” These words have launched countless retreats that have done enormous good for Christians over two millennia as we learned that we are not made for continuous labor. These words are also critical for those who serve others to keep in mind: The Christian life only works when it is a series of breaks we...

Today, 16 July, is the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  During the Amazonian Synod (“walking together”), it was at her church in Rome, near the Vatican, that the shrine to to the demon Pachamama was set up. Today, 16 July, is the anniversary of the Great Schism in 1054, when a Bull of Excommunication (not a Pachamama bowl) was lain on the altar of Hagia Sophia. Today, 16 July, the Manhattan Project for the first time successfully detonated a nuclear weapon. Today is the anniversary of the first nuke in 1945. In each of those cases, it took a long time to weigh the implications. It also takes times to absorb and weigh the implications of legislative documents. That leads me to my first reaction to the Motu Proprio, Traditionis custodes, which effectively insults the entire pontifica...