"Pas de vitesse," said our instructor in Italian-accented French. Then in English, "No rushing." I was one of several men being trained to work as a volunteer in the baths at Lourdes last month, and I was worried. This was my third visit to the French town of Lourdes, where the V

Saints and theologians, not to mention authors and poets, have long debated this thorny question: Why did Judas do it? To answer that we need to know something about the man himself.

I knew almost nothing about the town, except that it had some vague connection with Joan of Arc.

We have a policy at America of not running many obituaries. The practice saves the editors from agonizing over who gets one and who does not. Of course there are some obvious people who deserve obituaries or appreciations. Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa, for example. Over the last year the theo

"Spots of time" is what the poet William Wordsworth called those places that imprint themselves so deeply into our minds that simply remembering them can lift our hearts - in other words, holy places. I thought about that phrase as I left Kentucky last month after visiting the Abbey of Get

Members of the Society of Jesus are often accused of excessive pride in their order and its history. This can be a fair critique. Sometimes, for example, Jesuits speak as if St. Ignatius Loyola were the first Christian to discover prayer. Not long ago at a retreat house, I gave a talk about Ignatian

Sometimes when I see a movie with a friend in which a mean-spirited character finally gets his (or her) comeuppance, I’ll say jokingly, "It’s like Jesus says in the Gospels, 'What goes around, comes around.’" Usually the friend will smile. But on occasion, the person

Have you ever returned to a book that you enjoyed as a younger reader? The experience can be enjoyable, disappointing and surprising, all at once. Last month, in a book club at a local Jesuit parish, I reminded the group that our next selection would be Mr. Blue, by Myles Connolly. Mr. Blue! exclaimed one woman. I read that when I was in high school and loved it!

"We’ve lost everything, and I mean everything. We’ve lost contact with some family members." Kenneth Cain, a New Orleans construction worker, was describing the terrible effects of Hurricane Katrina to The Los Angeles Times. When I read about Mr. Cain, I thought of a friend I k

Here are two ways God works. First, God seems to clear a path so obviously that you can’t doubt God’s activity. As St. Paul wrote, All things work together for good for those who love God. Second, God seems to make achieving something so difficult that you realize that the struggle is pa