The Tears and the Embrace of Ecclesia Mater By Mac Stewart Eusebius of Caesarea is well known for his highly optimistic appraisal of the Roman Empire’s turn — first, in toleration, then, in support — to the Christian religion under Constantine. The f... Read More...
‘Blood of Christ, Inebriate Me’ By Mac Stewart When I was a kid, I wasn’t so crazy about the date of my birth: April 29. It was toward the end of the school year, which meant I was always one of the last students in the class to move up t... Read More...
Ignatian ‘Indifference’ and Spiritual Freedom By Mac Stewart "The human mind and heart are a mystery; but God will loose an arrow at them, and suddenly they will be wounded” (Ps. 64:7). I have usually been cautious about wading too deeply into discussio... Read More...
The Hidden Life of St. Charles of Jesus By Mac Stewart At the end of his October 2020 Encyclical on “Fraternity and Social Friendship,” Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis referred to a figure (besides St. Francis) who had inspired the preceding pages by... Read More...
Throwback Thursday: Where are We Looking? Recent events have (or should have) shaken many of us who call the church home. Ongoing revelations of abuse and its cover up. The discovery of mass graves of indigenous children in Catholic-run residential sch... Read More...
Jerusalem the Golden By Mac Stewart We should think about heaven more. Yes, I know: it’s important to avoid being so heavenly minded as to be no earthly good; we mustn’t promise people pie in the sky when they die as an excuse f... Read More...
Drawing Near at a Distance By Mac Stewart I live as a guest in a Catholic religious community. Every Sunday evening, the community adores Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. At the end of this time of adoration, the community members rece... Read More...
The Second Commandment: Imagination and Contemplation Part of a series on the Ten Commandments. By Mac Stewart One of my favorite TV shows as a little kid was Reading Rainbow. In a book, the theme song said, you can go twice as high; you can be a king and l... Read More...