There is a beautiful hymn that Maronite Catholics sing during Lent which connects two things that people don’t normally associate with each other: joy and fasting. The hymn proclaims, “Go to meet this fast with joy.” The idea of rejoicing...

I recently listened to a very simple and yet profound book on my car ride to the Maronite Monks. The book was called Practicing the Presence of God: The Best Rule of a Holy Life and was written by a...

Today, we tend to think of theology as one academic subject among many, and in a sense this viewpoint has its merits. Due to the rigor and systematic developments of Medieval Scholasticism, theology and philosophy was able to pave the...

I have been reflecting lately on what it means to be free from sin, and I have felt my attention drawn time and time again to the same idea. Due to the effects of sin in our life, we are...

Friendship is a new creation, ever young, a heart that moves and is moved, that starts at the beginning of things, sings a newness, startlingly bright, rings in its golden splendor and brilliant in the light of a fresh perspective...

The role of the emotions in the spiritual life is often misunderstood. There are two extremes that people fall into when considering the emotions. The first is an exaltation of the emotions. If what I am doing or planning on...

In the Office of Reading for today’s celebration, Pope Paul VI talks about the silence of the Holy Family. This seems like such a strange statement. As many of us know, families rarely seem to be “silent” especially when the...

In our contemporary culture, people often view sins and faults as primarily individualistic with little or no bearing on others. Society tends to view sin as a kind of moral norm dictated by personal beliefs, whether it is a personal...