spirituality

There are few words that get the Christian imagination going more than ‘martyr’. Indeed, our faith cut its teeth in times of periodic and local, but nonetheless violent persecution, when many Christians were executed, often in gruesome public spectacles. But our language here in English hides something important. For the Greek word martys, from which … Continue reading St. Oscar Romero and the Way of the Martyr

Towards the start of this series on the Ways of the Saints, we looked St. Herman of Alaska, a Russian missionary who stood up for and alongside the local peoples being exploited by the colonial administration; we also saw a wonderful example of the fruition of what he began in the figure of St. Olga … Continue reading St. Innocent of Alaska and the Way of Curiosity

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