There’s an old saying passed around by priests who have to hear confessions that ‘Sin is boring.’ This isn’t the wishful thinking of a spiritual elite, or even the jaded ennui of those who’ve heard everything. Rather, it’s just true. Stripped of all the enticing glitz and glamour, there are really only a handful of ways to sin. There’s greed, stinginess (which is just another side of greed), there’s covetousness, lust, and adultery (which are just greed applied to sex) — well, you see what I mean. To put it another way, if we define sin as any of the ways we break relationships with God, others, and self (the three arenas in which we are explicitly told to love), we see that all sin boils down to one of two things: most commonly, allowing our self and its immediate desires to get in the way of love, or, more rarely, putting the needs of others so ahead of our own that we reject, denigrate, or erase our own personhood.

By comparison, holiness — faithfulness in those relationships — is amazing in its diversity and creativity. Paradoxically, the more we become like Christ, the more we grow into our truest selves, in all our particularity and individuality. This is a point I’ve tried to make often over the years here on the blog, but it was the major theme of my Lenten series in 2025, which explored the lives and ways of different Christian saints from around the world and across the centuries. We looked at theologians and hands-on workers, people from the upper classes and those from among ‘the least of these’, clergy and laity, men and women (and at least one person who played fast and loose with gender), people from the political left (but committed to working for peaceful change) and the right (but whose faith led them to set aside their proclivities and work for the poor, marginalized, and oppressed). On and on, we saw that holiness cuts through all of our human divisions and false dichotomies and makes a way for anyone and everyone to make a lasting legacy in their own, unique way.

Servants of God: A Reflection for Ash Wednesday 2025

St. John of the Cross and the Way of the Dark Night

St. Olga of Kwethluk and the Way of Showing Up

The Way of the ‘Holy Fool’

St. Anthony the Great and the Way of the Desert

St. John XXIII and the Way of Open-Heartedness

St. Gregory Palamas and the Way of Light

St. Peter Faber and the Way of Dialogue

St. Moses and the Way of Faithfulness amidst Prejudice

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Way of Sharing God’s Dream

(Pseudo-)Jean Pierre de Caussade and the Way of Being Present

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Way of the Arena

St. Patrick and the Way of Trust in Christ’s Protection

St. Ephrem the Syrian and the Way of Glorifying God in Challenging Times

Julian of Norwich and the Way of Staying with Experience

St. Herman of Alaska and the Way of Standing with the Oppressed

St. Pier Giorgio Frassati and the Way of Dedication to Change

St. Maximus the Confessor and the Way of Upholding the Good

St. Thérèse of Lisieux and the Way of Simplicity

St. John of Damascus and the Way of Having a Ready Answer

St. Mary the Mother of God and the Way of Yes to God: A Reflection for Annunciation 2025

Fr. Alexander Men and the Way of Collective Honesty

St. Francis of Assisi and the Way of Letting Go

St Clare of Assisi and the Way of Following

St. Bonaventure and the Way of Finding Traces of God

St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Way of Transformation

Howard Thurman and the Way of Specificity

St. Seraphim of Sarov and the Way of the Holy Spirit

St. Josephine Bakhita and the Way of Freedom in Suffering

St. Athanasius of Alexandria and the Way of Telling the Bigger Story

St. Maximilian Kolbe and the Way of Rising to the Occasion

Dorothy Day and the Way of Action and Activism

St. Elisabeth the New Martyr and the Way of Privilege Used Well

St. Marguerite Bourgeoys and the Way of Building Institutions

Sts. Joachim and Anna and the Way of Holy Parenthood (or not)

St. Hildegard von Bingen and the Way of Creativity

St. Innocent of Alaska and the Way of Curiosity

St. Oscar Romero and the Way of the Martyr

St. Maria Skobtsova and the Way of Breaking the Conventions but Keeping the Commandments