Five years ago now (!), after I wrote a sub-series on mystics in my my larger ‘Knowing God’ series, I found myself returning for weeks and months to the vivid imagery of St. Hildegard von Bingen’s writings: for example, God as a beautiful woman shining brighter than the sun, “who sets all living sparks alight,” … Continue reading St. Hildegard von Bingen and the Way of Creativity
As I noted yesterday in my post on St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, so many of the Saints seem out of reach or out of touch to us because they lived such extraordinary and unrelatable lives. But some of my favourite Saints are remembered for doing things that many, if not most, Christians do. For this reason, … Continue reading Sts. Joachim and Anna and the Way of Holy Parenthood (or not)
One of the basic premises of this series on the Ways of the Saints is that holiness manifests itself in an infinite variety of ways. Even if we are tempted to dismiss the radicalism of St. Francis of Assisi, the aggressive simplicity of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, or the bravery of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther … Continue reading St. Marguerite Bourgeoys and the Way of Building Institutions
One of the most challenging (and in some places controversial) ideas of the past decade or so has been the concept of privilege, those aspects of our identity that, even if they may not always grease the wheels of life for us, at least don’t act as roadblocks to our success. But while our conversations … Continue reading St. Elisabeth the New Martyr and the Way of Privilege Used Well: A Reflection on Philippians 3:4B-14
There’s a strange phenomenon in how the politics of the West has developed over the past few hundred years in that the right honours the role of religion in public life while setting aside its concerns for justice and transformation within that public life, while the left has tended to marginalize religion but shares those … Continue reading Dorothy Day and the Way of Action and Activism
Matthew Root 