Ministers in the Water

Ministers cannot walk on water; but they can learn to swim.

Our Weakness, His Strength

The folklore surrounding Poland's famous concert pianist and prime minister, Ignace Paderewski, includes this story, which though fictional provides ...

No One Here but Us Sinners

All the holy men seem to have gone off and died. There's no one left but us sinners to carry on the ministry.

Snow on the Summits

If we saw the Church as she is in the most generous souls who live most truly the life of the Church, she would appear most beautiful in our sight, despite ...

Life in the Ordinary

The culture conditions us to approach people and situations as journalists do: see the big, exploit the crisis, edit and abridge the commonplace, interview ...

Failure Late in Life

It's scary to realize that most of the people who failed in Scriptures failed in the second half of their lives.

Power from the Story

Sometimes telling a story has as much effect on the teller as it does the listeners. Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher, recalls:

"My grandfather ...

Fortified Within

There are two ways of handling pressure. One is illustrated by a bathysphere, the miniature submarine used to explore the ocean in places so deep that ...

Learning the Hard Way

If you are a poor creature--poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels--saddled, by no choice of ...

Good Preachers Struggle

The fact that you are struggling is not a sign that you are inadequate as a preacher. If you were never perplexed about what to preach on, it might indicate ...