Writer and editor Vinita Hampton Wright shares with us her thoughts on hope as a driving dynamic of Advent. This reflection originally appeared as the post “How Does Hope Shape Us?”

As I have so often written in this blog, my life is hectic, busy and frantic. I can now see that I seem to be hell-bent on keeping it that way. In recent months I have put in very long...

"Comfort, Comfort, O My People" is a lovely Advent hymn, based on verses from Isaiah 40.  This version is by the Ignatian Schola, a Manhattan-based vocal ensemble composed of Jesuits and lay colleagues. Thanks to Michelle Francl-Donnay for the...

You've heard it said many times: when we pray, we should tell God how we really feel.  But that's not easy to do.  Brian Busse, SJ, points to our aversion to the psalms that express anger and violence, and...

Thomas Merton is known for his prayer which begins, “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.” This...

For the Second Week of Advent, writer and theologian Tim Muldoon shares his thoughts about waiting. This reflection originally appeared as the dotMagis post “Waiting.”

This is a guest post.One of my greatest joys is leading college students on international service-immersion trips. I've traveled with 80 students to Nicaragua over the past seven years. I love seeing students' lives transformed while walking with our...

The jazz composer and pianist Dave Brubeck, who died yesterday, was intensely interested in spiritual things.  He said once that “something should be done musically to strengthen man's knowledge of God."  He became a Catholic in 1980 shortly after composing...

Becky Eldredge offers some advice for how to find a spiritual director.

It's early December, winter, cold mornings and barren landscapes and leaden skies. It's the time of Advent--the season of longing for the light of Christ to break into our world. Let's listen to the greatest Advent hymn, "O Come O...