Blog

One strange (if inconsequential) impact of Covid-19 are ‘virtual’ running races. We who have preregistered for, say, half-marathons, are...

Aging cuts both ways: yes, we at Desert Stream Ministries are now 40 years wiser, but also stubborn and calcified in ways that can...

Authority arises from intimacy. And intimacy is about spending time with the beloved, lovers lingering together until… Who knows? How...

‘What you sow does not come to life unless it dies’ (1 Cor. 15:36). Spring sings jazzy harmonies and awakens the dawn; ok, birds do, and...

‘Many are awed by His miracles; few accept the shame of His Cross.’ Thomas a Kempis From the beginning of His adult ministry, Jesus set...

by Marco Casanova “Each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it most.” GK Chesterton Shifting the atmosphere involves...

A Lent unlike any other: rather than beef up devotion, I find myself reducing spiritual intake. Much of the time I find myself gaping at...

My dreams reveal one frustrated guy. I wake up half-smiling at the heart’s antics: I can’t get out of the room or parking lot, no exit,...

‘I will not leave you as orphans…The Advocate, the Holy Spirit…will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to...

‘Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.’ (Heb. 3:13) At...

OK. I’ve got a great pastor. Father Justin is orthodox and admittedly human: richly so, kind of noble but not self-important. His...

I kid you not. After 40 years of leading Living Waters groups, I just finished the best one ever. These twenty weeks rolled out like a...

‘Shine like lights in the universe, as you hold out the Word of life’ (Phil. 2: 15, 16). A season of silence ends: now back to airports,...

‘The true revolution comes from silence’ (Robert Cardinal Sarah). ‘How silently, how silently the wondrous Gift is given.’ Yet Christmas...

‘Advent means a heart that is awake and ready, which does not let itself become bitter and deadened by hard blows but stays awake and...

Our trouble lies not in heavy-handed religion but in banal lullabies that assure us that God is love, all love, and only wants our...

For the last 30 years, I’ve pounded the pavement as a long-distance runner. I ran the LA Marathon in 1989, beat my training partner, and...

Until our weakness becomes ground that drinks rain from heaven, it may well invite the reign of hell. Such is the case for persons with...

We met in front of City Hall next to the Lincoln statue, featuring Abe and his son Tad. Fitting. Here we were, Christians of all stripes,...

All Saint’s Day reminds us of faithful ones who went before us and made a way for our faithfulness. I celebrated this feast of gratitude...