A Catholic friend of mine texted me earlier in the week to remind me it was the "Feast of the Immaculate Conception." Her message read: "Think about how her (Mary's) yes shaped our faith."

I don't spend much time thinking about Mary, and I suspect this lack of attention is my ...

New Post on The Park Forum: "The Moral Mess of Abortion"

I had the chance to speak with two high school creative writing classes yesterday. I read portions of Penelope Ayers and they asked questions–How did you decide to make this story public? How many times did you rewrite the opening chapters? (And by the way, the answer there ...

Matthew 1:23, quoting from the prophet Isaiah: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means, ‘God with us'." God didn't advertise His love and presence for us by billboards in the sky. Instead, he came down and ...

In case you're just tuning in, this post is part of a series based on talks I gave a few weeks back. It's picking up on the idea that if we, as humans, are to know of God's existence, it is up to God to let us know:If I were God, how would I cross the ontological divide? ...

Two follow up thoughts on the previous post.

One, driving up I-95 with two screaming children on Thursday night made me wonder whether I was delusional in writing about the joy of having children. Of course, what I wrote about was the joy that comes in self-sacrifice, and the ...

New post on the Park Forum: Mammograms and Mortality

I've been thinking recently of the idea that Christians are called to self-sacrificial love, to carry our cross, etc. And I look at my life and wonder–do I do this? On some level, I'm sure the answer is no. But on another level, yes. I just don't think of it as self-sacrifice. ...

New post on the Park Forum: Pop Culture and Jesus

I had the opportunity to read from Penelope Ayers with a wonderful group of women last night. They asked great questions about writing and reading and the ways in which coming to know Penny, my mother-in-law, changed who I am. One of the things we talked about, in the large ...

Two years ago, we had a group of seniors over for dinner to talk about science and religion. Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, an agnostic and an atheist, all sitting around our table together. It was a good conversation, but at the end of the night, they seemed to ...