Saint Jerome: Attentive to the Word with Joy

Happy Feast of Saint Jerome!

Introducing Catie Janaro (with Her Older Sisters)

Catherine Elise Janaro was born around 7 PM on Saturday, September 27, 2025.

Here she is with her two older sisters, Anna (left) and Maria (right). It’s wonderful for kids to have siblings. We’ll have some more pictures from the Baptism, and — we hope — a new Janaro family picture by then.

Welcome, Catie!

It's Avril Lavigne's Birthday, and SOMEBODY ELSE'S

Actually, Happy Belated Birthday to Avril Lavigne, who turned 41 years old on September 27th. I had some digital portraits and stuff to share - but Saturday was co-opted by... another birthday, by which I mean, literally, a day of birth! More on that soon...

I do want to muse a bit on Avril, who remains (in my mind) the iconic Millennial. This by no means implies that she is an example for everyone else to follow (multimedia performance artists are too wacky for that). What I mean is that she is a kind of "mirror" that reflects in some ways where this generation is going.

The fact that I'm someone who appreciates Avril is surprising; I wouldn't ordinarily be much interested in a performer who is known as "the pop-punk princess" (Avril has this mode of artistry, but there are so many more facets of her talent and charisma).

As you know if you read this blog, music of all kinds is a significant part of my life. I was classically trained on the cello. As a teenager in the 1970s, I used my musical training to teach myself to play guitar. That included electric guitar. LOUD electric guitar. I played long enough (and well enough) to know "from-the-inside" that playing rock 'n roll is a genuine and difficult craft, an aesthetic effort to "make something beautiful" (remember, beauty is analogical).

In other words, rock 'n roll is more than an excuse to make noise. It's more than a rowdy electronic pillow fight. It's more than just "fun." If you consider the technologically enhanced, light-and-noise-saturated infrastructure that surrounds us day and night, that constantly puts stress on our senses in so many ways that humans never had to deal with before, it's not surprising that some people take up these new sources of sound, stress, and strain in order to craft them into something that has sonic coherence - music. That's just one approach in my effort to develop an aesthetics of rock music.

Back to Avril Lavigne. I've told this story too many times: I became interested in her when she announced in 2015 that she had Lyme disease. She disappeared for five years (from 2013-2018). During the "aughts," she had one of the most widely recognized faces on the planet. I'm not exaggerating here: You could go to China and see big advertisement posters of Avril on a skateboard drinking some brand of iced tea. She was the biggest Western artist in Japan. Her five world tours included lots of East Asian venues, because they loved her. Everyone loved this Canadian small town girl.

Then, BOOM, nothing. She got hammered by Lyme disease. I understood that. I knew what that was like. With sympathy and genuine interest, I started listening to her music. A lot of her songs I didn't like at all. Some songs grew on me slowly. Some songs were GOLD. Then, on September 29, 2018 (that's seven years ago) she released a new song, "Head Above Water." That was a very special song.

Avril did a lot for Lyme disease awareness from 2018-2021. Meanwhile, she was getting back on her feet and onto the stage. In 2022, she stopped talking about it entirely. I don’t blame her. She’s in remission, she has it under control. She has her energy back. She wants to use it. So she did two summers of a “Greatest Hits” tour, sold out Madison Square Garden, brought out thousands of nostalgic middle-aged Millennials and their teenage kids. She did the “punk-pop” stuff and wore her weird outfits. She also played some “deep cuts” from the old albums, which is where the GOLD is often buried.

Avril’s unique face, her variety of facial expressions, and her abundance of ever-changing hair make her a great “subject” for my digital portrait practice work. Photographs and videos are all over the internet, so it’s not hard to find images to start with. But Avril is “complicated.” She has a sweet smile, but there is always that smokey black eyeliner. It’s a trademark. Then she flips the bird on you. She has changed her hairstyles, color streaks, and all that stuff. Sometimes there are mountains of hair.

Her Instagram post for her birthday was brilliant! “41…. Let’s go” but it was the photo, the deadpan expression, and the chic glasses worn “granny style” that made this a great image. The seemingly ageless “iconic” Millennial teenager may start moving in the direction of the gracefully “maturing” middle-aged Millennial “cool auntie.” The real woman beneath the various dramatic personae has been around for some time, and she’s had a lot of suffering — more than we’ll ever know. Going forward and stepping into the “forty-somethings” will be a challenge for her and the rest of her generation. Perhaps they’ll be led on roads their elders never knew.

Happy Birthday, Avril! Be well. I don’t know whether or not you remember much the God who “kept your head above water,” but He has not forgotten you and He continues to hold you up. You are one of the celebrities I have “spiritually adopted” and I am praying for you.

This blog post, however, indicates SOMEBODY ELSE… My GRANDDAUGHTER Catherine was born on Saturday evening. She has the same birthday as Avril, which is fun. I need to get some pictures to welcome her properly into the Janaro Clan. It might have to wait until the Baptism this coming weekend.

Stay tuned for that….

Saint Vincent de Paul, Apostle of Mercy

Happy Feast of Saint Vincent de Paul, the Great "Apostle of the Works of Mercy," not only external but also internal. The mercy of God's love encountered in Jesus Christ changes the way we see the sufferings of others, and engenders within our hearts a new kind of compassion toward others and toward ourselves. When we allow Christ to embrace us with His mercy, we begin to be instruments of His mercy.

The quotation from Saint Vincent in the picture says: "Consider God's generosity toward you rather than your own unworthiness in His sight, and live in His strength rather than in the thoughts of your own weakness." He also said, "We should strive to keep our hearts open to the sufferings and wretchedness of other people, and pray continually that God may grant us that spirit of compassion which is truly the spirit of God."

These words resonate in the midst of all the conflicts and turbulence of our present day. They indicate our own profound human "need" — which we all have — the personal loneliness, brokenness, and suffering that we all endure, which is the "place" where Jesus comes to meet us and where He wants to stay with us. He comes to stir up hope within us, a firm adherence to the God who is LOVE, and who loves each one of us. From this, we can be consoled and converted, and we are empowered to say "yes" to God, to grow in love by participating in the gift of Divine life, and to learn to live in a fully human way in all the circumstances of our times.

Tears: The Language of a Wounded Heart

"There are times in our lives when tears are the glasses through which we see Jesus. There is a moment in our lives when only tears prepare us to see Jesus.... Tears are a language that express the deep feelings of a wounded heart. Tears are a silent cry for compassion and comfort. Moreover, they cleanse and purify our eyes, our feelings, and our thoughts. We should not be ashamed to cry; it is a way of expressing our sadness and our desire for a new world. Crying tells of our humanity, which is weak and tested, but destined for joy" (Pope Leo XIV).

Words and Words That Make Things Worse

What are we trying to build in this new world of hyper-technology, action-worship, propaganda from every side, rootlessness, sensory and emotional saturation, and the overarching determination to reconstruct human values by the hammers of power?

What are we building? Towers of Babel, everywhere, and words and words that make no sense except as rage by which we tear one another apart and spread wreckage everywhere… “words and dialectics only make it worse.”

Without God, the dignity of the human person has no foundation. The human face becomes opaque, obscure, stirring up mistrust, hatred, distancing, and isolation. The “physical and mental comfort” that is the obsession of the Western world has made us forget God. Do we still think we can bring forth works of enduring beauty?

Here is our hope: we may have forgotten God, but He hasn’t forgotten us. His mercy anticipates us and draws us even in the darkest places in the depths of our hearts — places deeper than we know, where our hearts still cry out to Him.

84 years ago — as he searched for truth amidst the bleakness and brutality of the Nazi dystopia that surrounded his whole life — young Christoph Probst wrestled with similar questions while exploring the ancient churches in Bavaria. Here is an excerpt from one of his letters:

"There stands the cathedral, again and again it appears so beautiful, so great, uplifting and ingenious! The feeling of joy and admiration that I have when I look at it, is always mixed with that of a profound admonition: people were once able to build this – what can you still do today? How poor you feel then, with all the physical and mental comfort of modern times! There would be a lot to say, but words and dialectics only make it worse."

~ Christoph Probst, Strasbourg 1941

The Road Ahead

This piece of digital artwork from JJStudios is called “The Road Ahead.”

The Story of One of Today’s 103 Korean Martyrs

Saint Mareuko Jeong Eui-Bae is one of the 103 Korean martyrs whose feast we celebrate on September 20. He is among some 10,000 Koreans who gave their lives for Christ during multiple fierce persecutions in the mid-19th century. Most were ordinary lay men and women, but some were also from the educated classes and the nobility. We know enough about the high-ranking nobleman/scholar Mareuko Jeong to appreciate the particular drama of his conversion.

Korean cultural life flourished for many centuries, creatively appropriating ancient Chinese literary and religious traditions into its own independent society. But by the end of the 18th century, the 500-year-old Joseon dynasty was in deep decline, and dependent on Qing-dynasty China. Meanwhile, the Joseon Neo-Confucian State had become a religious/political structure of rigid social hierarchy, with the monarch at the center, followed by the noble and scholarly classes, and with many of the common people reduced to a status of virtual slavery.

It was the scholar-officials who began searching for ways to reform this ossified society. In frequent diplomatic trips to Beijing, they met “Westeners” (including Catholic priests) and obtained books on developments in Western science, technology, philosophy, and religion translated into Chinese. Thus arose the “Sohak” movement—groups of scholars who studied “Western learning” and discussed its possible value for reforming Korean society. For most, it was mainly an intellectual examination of various Western ideas, but a few were drawn specifically to the Catholic faith. Yi Sung-hun was baptized in Beijing in 1784, returned to Korea, and baptized a few of his compatriots. By the time the first priest arrived in 1795 there were 4000 baptized lay Catholics waiting for him.

There was also aggressive opposition to the new teaching. The Joseon royal house and their Neo-Confucian supporters viewed Christianity as a threat to the Korean social order. Worship of One God in Jesus Christ undermined the religious/superstitious system of rites offered for the monarch and the hierarchical continuity of clan and family. Christianity preached that God was the Father of all people, who were brothers and sisters with a common destiny in Christ regardless of their origins and social status. Among the scholars who abhorred the new Christian teaching was (Mareuko) Jeong Eui-Bae. Born in 1794, Jeong was an established professor of Chinese literature and defender of the status quo when persecution broke out in 1839. By that time the French Foreign Mission Society had sent a bishop and two priests to Korea. In 1839, Jeong Eui-Bae witnessed the brutal mutilation and execution of Bishop Laurentius Imbert, Father Peter Maubant, and Father Jakob Chastan. (They are also among the 103 martyred saints.)

The 47-year-old scholar had seen death many times. But in these three men Jeong saw something completely new: an astonishing joy in the face of torture and death. Jeong was growing old in a society where death was covered with shadows. His studies gave no hint as to how to face death, much less to embrace it with the joy he saw on the faces of those missionaries that day.

Disregarding his honorable station, Jeong obtained and read forbidden Christian books and met the people who believed in the One written about in those books. Glimpsing there the Source of hitherto unknown joy and hope, the long-cynical old professor was totally converted. He was baptized Mareuko (Mark) and devoted his newfound zeal and intellectual skills to working as a catechist and caring for the sick. The poor humble people whom the former aristocrat had once scorned he now served with love until his own martyrdom in 1866, at age 72.

Buona Festa di San Gennaro

Buona Festa! Another year for the “Janaro Family Feast.” We had pizza.

Any day now, the newest Janaro will be born.☺️

“Dark Shadows Fall Over An Era”

"The darker the shadows fall over an era, the greater the longing for the light of individuals whose bourgeois equanimity has been robbed by the shadowy nature and sacrilege of their present. The longing for light and enlightenment has led us to the only bright spot that remains for us: Christ. And that will remain for us. He is our entire background, our guide, and our goal."

~ Hans Scholl (of The White Rose anti-Nazi student protest group, Munich, 1942)

In these weeks I have taken up again the study of the group that emerged briefly in opposition to Adolf Hitler at the University of Munich in Germany during World War II, The White Rose. A more intensive look at these students opens up a unique perspective on one of the most violent, suffocating, dehumanizing social orders that has ever existed in human history: Hitler's National Socialist totalitarian Party-State. Here is a story of a group of ordinary German young people in the wider context of a whole generation that grew up under Nazi rule and experienced its systematic invasiveness of every aspect of human life. Even internal dissent was extraordinarily difficult, especially after Germany went to war in 1939. The lies of Nazi propaganda fed a misconceived national patriotism and people's genuine fears of being overrun by Stalin's Communist totalitarian system from the Soviet Union. All of this combined with the natural human desire for economic security and a comfortable life, the pressure to conform, and the fear of expressing any criticism or opposition to Hitler or his regime. 

So many German people remained bound to the Nazis — whether through hollow enthusiasm or crushed silence — in a kind of psychological and spiritual paralysis of various and complex origins. There were numerous factors, including a combination of escalating terror, lingering wishful thinking about economic success and “social order,” and the desperate hope of escaping Soviet Communism through a neopagan revival of mythical Teutonic strength. It was difficult to avoid the trap of active collaboration (or at least the passive complicity of being dragged along) with Hitler’s “triumphant” war, even as it was carrying out a racist program of genocide and ethnic cleansing out of hatred for the Jews and in pursuit of a "Greater Germany" expanding into Eastern Europe and Ukraine.

The leaflet campaign of The White Rose was a brave and energetic effort to “do something,” and — even though it never stood much chance of political success — it did show Germany and the world that there was still a narrow space where the human conscience could shine. It was a witness to the transcendent human vocation for which these students were willing to give their lives. Above all, it was an experience through which they encountered Jesus Christ and grew in love for Him even in the midst of so many other activities and concerns. Ultimately the protagonists were able to embrace Christ through sharing in His death, which they faced with a serenity — even a joy — that shocked their executioners. Their joy promised something new even as their nation was falling apart all around them.

I will continue to research and learn more about Hans and Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst (whose beautiful “conversion story” I have just written about for my monthly article series, and which will appear in April 2026), Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, Kurt Huber, and others in The White Rose circle who mentored and supported them in the resistance work that they took up at great risk and with considerable hesitation, but ultimately standing before God with clarity of conscience. They were real people with flaws and doubts. They were full of immature passions and youthful ideals and they argued amongst themselves. They were not fine-tuned for success, but they tried their best. And, of course, they failed. But history remembers them (even if it doesn’t understand them), because they acted out of love for the truth and genuine love for their country and the world. It was a love that grew within them and reached maturity in the face of their own deaths in 1943. Ultimately they acted for love and persevered in love to the end because they surrendered themselves to the One whose love is greater than death.

Looking at these people and these events as a citizen of the USA in the “Bloody Summer of 2025” has rekindled hope in my own heart regarding our nation even though it too seems to be falling apart all around us in these days. The United States is fundamentally different from Germany in the Nazi era and faces different dangers. I don’t believe that the current regime is “just like Hitler,” no matter how much agitation is bound up with this comparison. Nevertheless, in my opinion, this regime remains reckless, callous, disoriented, and dangerous for our nation and the world for many other reasons. However, the current regime is too often hounded by an “opposition” that is poisoned by its own compromises and delusions. The opposition denounces this regime’s failure to respect human rights, but it also participates in manufacturing and lobbying for new so-called human rights drawn forth from ideologies that aim at the very foundations of human dignity and seek to undermine the basic principles of moral law written by God in the depths of every human heart.

The United States has a whole different context of problems in 2025 than Nazi Germany 85 years ago. We may be able to learn something, however, from the history of the people of those days, from what Hans Scholl called the “bourgeois equanimity” that dominated the mentality of so many ordinary Germans and drove them to sell their intelligence and freedom for the false promises of a demagogue. Just like us, their daily lives were controlled by the desperate desire to hold on at all costs to the material comforts of their technologically advanced society. They were compelled to blind themselves to the enormous evils perpetrated for their comforts and alleged “greatness,” and then to distract themselves as their own society began to fall apart due to the “shadowy nature and sacrilege of their present.” 

How well do we perceive the “shadowy nature” (not to mention the sacrilege) of our own present? The United States has long existed as a “two-party system,” with multiple levels of deeply rooted institutions that have a long history of preventing any faction from seizing total power. Externally, we are nothing like the Weimar Republic. We have different problems, and our future is subject to many forces that are beyond our control. But both political parties have become ugly and intolerable in our current society (in different ways and for different reasons). We don’t seem very competent at “voting for the lesser evil” without losing our heads and running after the distorted, polarized, and foolish propaganda of whichever party we end up choosing. How quickly we adopt its proposals, adapt ourselves to its changes of content and/or strategy, and join in demonizing members of the other party. Are we motivated by something more than our grasping to preserve and increase our unprecedented material comforts, our pride, and our lust for success — for “winning” at all costs? Is this our 2025 version of bourgeois equanimity? Whatever it is, it cannot satisfy us. It’s falling apart all around us, falling into the shadows, evaporating into the superficial self-indulgence that increasingly dominates our every day.

Why are we compelled to heap contempt on other people who pop up on our screens and seem to be repeating slogans from the opposing group? We don’t know these people, the stories of their real lives, the motivations of their conflicted hearts. Do we even try to consider them as human persons? Although we can’t see them as God sees them, can we not aspire to love them? Not that we should have soft minds, but can we open a space for them in our minds and hearts, open paths to dialogue, endure them with hope in the working of the unfathomable grace of God in their hearts? If we are convinced we must oppose someone else’s ideas or projects, can we not do so with honor, reason, and compassion? This entails not rhetorical tricks, but being present with love: the love for the human person that is vulnerable to the point of suffering. This is difficult: in fact, it’s impossible unless we ourselves have experienced this love and allow ourselves to be carried by this love and grow through this love. We must not be afraid, but rather be patient with one another and with ourselves.

Perhaps we are struggling to grow in truth and love.

Hans Scholl, as a teenager, became a leader in Hitler Youth! He carried a Nazi flag past the Fuhrer’s grandstand at the Nuremberg rally of 1935. Who would have known back then where God was leading him? It was the presence of people who loved him with patience and perseverance that led him on a journey to the truth that was not without difficulty. The light shined in the darkness of his heart and he longed for it.

What do we know about the hearts of our brothers and sisters who are encompassed in the infinitely compassionate Heart of Jesus? What do we know of the longing He awakens within them, or the inner conflicts and struggles and sufferings that they endure, the suffering that He endures with them and in them and for them? How dare we have contempt for any human person?!

It’s not surprising that violence continued to rage among us in the Summer of 2025, that shootings have taken place in homes, shopping malls, and even churches. Most recently, there has been the assassination of political and social activist Charlie Kirk. May his soul rest in peace and may God console his poor family. This was a heinous act of violence that must not be viewed a single iota “less horrible” by those who have disagreements with the substance and/or style of his expressed views. Yet there were some people who are so engulfed in the hyper-partisan rage of their own shallow faction that they “celebrated” or otherwise commented flippantly about his death. It’s a sad thing that the internet has trained people to put forth in unjust words their most cruel and most vulgar impulses. This was a terrible murder! How can we turn to anything other than the infinite goodness and love and mercy of God?

What we all really need to do is to repent from out of the depths of our own souls, acknowledging the sins (yes, sins) by which we all participate in the spiral of violence in our country. And if we face the darkness — the shadows that we invite among us so as to hide ourselves from our own shrinking hearts — if we face the darkness, we might glimpse the light of Christ who remains with us and shows His merciful love. 

Jesus Christ is the meaning and purpose of our lives, of nations, of the whole universe. This is what matters, and we must hold fast to Him with greater firmness in these dark days as the shadows fall on us. His light is greater and burns more brightly in the growing darkness, and His grace works to awaken us and stir up within us that “longing for light.”

The Cross: “That the World Might Be Saved Through Him…”

September 14th — Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

It’s Not ALWAYS Quiet Around Here!☺️

Did I say “the house is always quiet” these days? That’s not really true. We see our two granddaughters on Sundays and during the week too. I’m so glad! Look how big Anna is getting! She will be two years old in November, while Maria turned four over the Summer.

They definitely feel comfortable hanging out at “Papa’s and Nana’s house.” It’s not unusual to “camp” in the living room. Ha ha!😉 (They’re in a little tent in the picture below.) Maria and Anna are very loving to each other… unless they’re fighting or crying over something. 

But their lives, and all of our lives, are about to change dramatically in ways we cannot possibly imagine. Their little SISTER is due this month… actually, any day now! (Have I mentioned this before on the blog? Well, I will definitely be writing more about her, very soon...)

Splendid Flowers, Distraught Human Faces

"How splendidly the flowers are blooming on this railroad embankment! As if all had assembled so that no color should be missing, they bloom here with gentle insistence — everywhere: alongside ruined buildings, gutted freight cars, distraught human faces. Flowers are blooming and children innocently playing among the ruins. O God of love, help me to overcome my doubts. I see the Creation, your handiwork, which is good. But I also see man's handiwork, our handiwork, which is cruel, and called destruction and despair, and which always afflicts the innocent. Spare your children! How much longer must they suffer? Why is suffering so unfairly meted out? When will a tempest finally sweep away all these godless people who besmirch your likeness, who sacrifice the blood of countless innocents to a demon? The whole world is bright again, for as far as the eye can see, after this rain."

~ Hans Scholl

   from the Russian Front, July 31, 1942

———————————————————————

Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie belonged to a group of young friends at the University in Munich in Germany during World War II who are known to us today as “the White Rose.” Their questions about the transcendent meaning of life in the face of the suffocating totalitarian pretensions of Nazi ideology, along with their meetings to discuss philosophical and literary works and the great grace of their close camaraderie led them to a profound encounter with Jesus Christ, and led some of them to commit themselves to nonviolent resistance against Hitler’s regime. The Scholl siblings, along with three other students and a professor, would crown their resistance with the sacrifice of their lives. 

Currently I have been researching one of these deeply human and inspired young people for my “Conversion Stories” column: Christoph Probst, who was baptized into Christ and His Catholic Church in the moments preceding his execution on February 22, 1943. 

There remains a great deal of material about the White Rose, and I intend to continue intensive research into the lives of these heroic men and women into the future. Stay tuned…

Mother Teresa and the “Thirst” of Jesus

September 5th was the feast day of Mother Teresa, who died on that day in 1997. Those of my generation remember her astonishing presence in this world — she was overflowing with the immense, unconditional love of Jesus that radiated forth from her and touched everyone who encountered her. Her service to "the poorest of the poor" drew many to follow her in her new religious foundation, the Missionaries of Charity, that she began after 20 years of teaching in private girl’s school in Calcutta as a member of the Sisters of Loreto. In this new “call within a call,” Mother Teresa sought Jesus in the suffering poor who were neglected by everyone else. In them, she contemplated the thirst of the Crucified One, and in her service she sought to respond to His thirst, and also to enter the depths of that thirst, witnessing to the inexhaustible thirst of Christ to love and to be loved. 

In His mercy, Jesus shared the thirst — the need of every human person — to be loved and to love that cries out for redemption from the core of human experience. Mother Teresa's focus on the thirst of Christ opened her up to a profound and particular compassion for the individual persons who had been abandoned in the streets of Calcutta, and to every person she encountered. She prayed and loved with a humble but unlimited openness to the poor, sick, and dying people she served in East India in simplicity and (relative) obscurity for twenty years. Then one day in 1969, a veteran British journalist showed up with a television camera to make a documentary about Mother Teresa's work.

Malcolm Muggeridge was 66 years old with a long career of global print, radio, and television reporting behind him when he pursued this remarkable story of radiant love in the South Asian slums. Muggeridge was also struggling with his own questions about the meaning and mystery of life, about God and suffering, faith and doubt. He struck up a remarkable friendship with Mother Teresa that ultimately led him to the Catholic Church. His documentary, Something Beautiful For God, brought a glimpse of Mother Teresa's luminous sanctity into the living rooms of countless BBC television viewers, and then to viewers all over the world.

In the ensuing years, Mother Teresa became one of the most recognized, admired, and inspiring people on earth, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Her charism touched us all in the remaining years of her life, and the Missionaries of Charity expanded their ministry to serve the needs of the poorest of the poor — to share the thirst of Jesus — wherever they were asked to go. They went to many places.

The most profound aspect of our conflicted, excessive, violent world is the enormous suffering, the terrible thirst that remains unquenched not only among the poor but also (and especially) among those of us who are drowning in the spiritual disappointments of unprecedented material abundance. It is good when our hearts are opened by the awareness of this need that leads to love, the need the Christ shares with us, thirsting from the Cross with us and for us.

Pope Leo's General Audience of September 3rd addressed these points in a striking and beautiful way. Here is the text, from the Vatican website:

At the heart of the account of the Passion, in the most luminous and at the same time darkest moment of Jesus’ life, the Gospel of John gives us two words that contain an immense mystery: “I thirst” (19:28), and immediately afterwards: “It is finished” (19:30). These are his last words, but they are filled with a whole lifetime, revealing the meaning of the entire existence of the Son of God. On the cross, Jesus does not appear as a victorious hero, but as a supplicant for love. He does not proclaim, condemn or defend himself. He humbly asks for what he, alone, cannot give to himself in any way.

The thirst of the Crucified Lord is not only the physiological need of a tortured body. It is also, and above all, the expression of a profound desire: that of love, of relationship, of communion. It is the silent cry of a God who, having wished to share everything of our human condition, also lets himself be overcome by this thirst. A God who is not ashamed to beg for a sip, because in that gesture he tells us that love, in order to be true, must also learn to ask and not only to give.

I thirst, says Jesus, and in this way he manifests his humanity and also ours. None of us can be self-sufficient. No-one can save themselves. Life is “fulfilled” not when we are strong, but when we learn how to receive. It is precisely at that moment, after receiving from unknown hands a sponge soaked in vinegar, that Jesus proclaims: It is finished. Love has made itself needy, and precisely for this reason it has accomplished its work.

This is the Christian paradox: God saves not by doing, but by letting himself do. Not by defeating evil with force, but by accepting the weakness of love to the very end. On the cross, Jesus teaches us that man does not realize himself in power, but in trustful openness to others, even when they are hostile and enemies. Salvation is not found in autonomy, but in humbly recognizing one’s own need and in being able to express it freely.

The fulfilment of our humanity in God’s plan is not an act of strength, but a gesture of trust. Jesus does not save with a dramatic twist, but by asking for something that he cannot give himself. And it is here that the door to true hope opens: if even the Son of God chose not to be self-sufficient, then our thirst too – for love, for meaning, for justice – is a sign not of failure, but of truth.

This truth, seemingly so simple, is difficult to accept. We live in a time that rewards self-sufficiency, efficiency, performance. And yet the Gospel shows us that the measure of our humanity is not given by what we can achieve, but by our ability to let ourselves be loved and, when necessary, even helped.

Jesus saves us by showing us that asking is not unworthy, but liberating. It is the way out of the hiddenness of sin, so as to re-enter the space of communion. Ever since the beginning, sin has begotten shame. But forgiveness – real forgiveness – is born when we can face up to our need and no longer fear rejection.

Jesus’ thirst on the cross is therefore ours too. It is the cry of a wounded humanity that seeks living water. And this thirst does not lead us away from God, but rather unites us with him. If we have the courage to acknowledge it, we can discover that even our fragility is a bridge towards heaven. It is precisely in asking – not in possessing – that a way of freedom opens up, because we cease to pretend to be self-sufficient.

In fraternity, in the simple life, in the art of asking without shame and offering without ulterior motives, a joy is born that the world does not know. A joy that restores us to the original truth of our being: we are creatures made to give and receive love.

Dear brothers and sisters, in Christ’s thirst we can recognize all of our own thirst. And to learn that there is nothing more human, nothing more divine, than being able to say: I need. Let us not be afraid to ask, especially when it seems to us that we do not deserve. Let us not be ashamed to reach out our hand. It is right there, in that humble gesture, that salvation hides.

“Even Our Fragility is a Bridge Towards Heaven…”

Here is Pope Leo’s Instagram post from Wednesday, September 3, 2025:

September: Another Academic Year Begins

September always brings complicated and strange feelings even after all these years. It has been a long time since the year 2008 (when I "retired"). It has been a lifetime, it seems, since I taught a regular course in a university classroom. Still, after 17 years, there is something like grief mixed in with my emotions. I miss my old "active life" as a professor.

Meanwhile, Eileen begins her teaching semester this week, and Jojo begins her final year in the White Oaks Upper School at the John XXIII Montessori Center. And so, once again, the house is quiet during the day, and I am alone. I’ll have to get used to that again. The evenings are also getting shorter, too — although there is still daylight at 7:00 PM. And at least for the moment, the weather has cooled off, so I can have more time outdoors.

I'm a bit droopy in September. At the same time, this new academic year beckons me to continue my scholarship and writing, and be open to new possibilities to serve the Lord with the gifts He has given to me. So often I feel useless, but I pray that God will draw me with His merciful love and lead me on the paths He chooses for me.

And to remember, every day, to be grateful.

Goodbye August

Goodbye August 2025.

Even When We "Lose Control," God's Love Sustains Us

In our society we're supposed to have things "under control" in our lives if we are responsible and mature adults. But let's face it, most of us don't "hold it together" all the time. In the increasing chaos that is spreading over the world today, it's not surprising that so many of us feel rattled, shaken up, and even scared. We're not "in control."

But if I "lose control," who will take over in my place? This question does come down to the level of the individual human person, because the rancor over global and national “big issues” can permeate the interior realms of persons and vital interpersonal communities more forcefully than ever before (given that technological media drowns us every day with detailed conflicting narratives beyond our capacity to assess or evaluate). Far from empowering us, this increasingly perceptible atmosphere of confusion and mistrust only underscores our lack of control over so many external factors in our lives, and fosters a malaise of anxiety over the scope of our own personal intelligence and freedom. Do my understanding and actions move me forward in my development as a person, or do I “lose control” over my own humanity in the whirlwind of desperate circumstances that surround me and press themselves upon me? I am a small, vulnerable, endangered person seemingly overshadowed by so many vast and terrible forces.

But if I don't control the direction and purpose of my life, then who does? Those who engineer the “dominant mentality”? Is the value of my life determined by those who "take control?" Must we all ultimately yield to those who strive to manipulate our minds with their ideologies and/or control us through the expanded sensory images that constantly bombard us — i.e. those who have power in this world? This is an existential problem, which means it's a question that really punches me in the guts, and not just me.

This is one of the reasons why people are afraid to admit their vulnerability even to themselves, much less reveal it to others. If we are vulnerable, if we are weak, how can we protect ourselves from being defined (and perhaps used and discarded) by those who grasp hold of power?

I don't know if we can protect ourselves, ultimately, from being misused and humiliated by those who boast of their power and want to do violence to us. But we have to try to remember that — however overwhelming it may be — our vulnerability does not define us either. And no ideology or clique or group or anyone can take it upon themselves to be the measure of the meaning and dignity of a human person. The powers of this world have their limits, and therefore oppression has its limits.

For "the Lord hears the cry of the poor..."

God defines and controls the meaning of my life. He doesn't manipulate me. He is not some great and distant super-power who “manages” everything else for his own benefit. God is not like the tyrannical "boss" of the universe, imposing a scheme on me that is alien to myself.

God is my Creator. He alone can form within me the understanding and free actions that truly correspond to “who-I-really-am.” He is the guarantor of my inviolable dignity, even when I am absolutely helpless.

God is Love. He has come to share our lives, to share our weakness, to bear the burdens we carry day by day in this harsh and broken world, the afflictions that the violence of others imposes on us (and even the afflictions that we impose on ourselves).

It is after all grace, the gift of God's love in Jesus Christ, that saves, heals, and transforms our lives beyond our own power or anything else in this world.

Saint Augustine and “The Hundredfold”

Saint Augustine. There's no end to what we could say about him. I want to refer to one of the many things about him that has always fascinated me. Saint Augustine is a radiant example of what Jesus calls "the hundredfold" (Mark 10:31).

Jesus says that if we follow Him, we will receive eternal life...but also, we will receive a hundredfold in this life (along with "persecutions"). He also says "seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added as well" (see Matthew 6:33). What exactly does Jesus mean here? He does not mean the we should follow Him in order to get stuff in this life. That would be to reduce Jesus to our own measure. Jesus wants to transform us according to God's wisdom. He wants to give us a new mind and a new heart. He promises eternal life, which is the free gift of participation in the life of God. God is the Mystery toward which everything in this life points, and His love is therefore the real meaning of everything in this life.

For this very reason, eternal life “already” illuminates our present historical life beyond our limited measure. The Servant of God Msgr. Luigi Giussani often said something that resonates deeply with me, and corresponds to my own experience. He said that if you really follow Christ, you will also discover that you love your wife a hundred times more than you ever could have imagined; that you love your children a hundred times more, your work a hundred times more, your friends a hundred times more. You will discover the real greatness of this life, and you will even be able to embrace suffering.

There is a particular way in which Saint Augustine's life indicates this pattern. Here was a man who aspired to be a great rhetorician, an artist with words. He pursued this ambition with relentless passion, but without understanding its true value. And then he found Christ, and he gave up all thought of being a rhetorician. He gave up the desire to be known for his speeches and writings and works in this world. He longed for Christ, followed Christ, and kept his heart fixed on Christ.

And from out of his singular passion for Christ — without even thinking about it, or caring, or noticing it — he wrote an amazing book. Desiring only to praise Christ, he wrote a book that was not only the greatest book of its epoch, but one of the greatest ever written in human history. In His Confessions, Saint Augustine gave the world inimitable and unforgettable Latin prose, soaring and poetic diction, and timeless, soul-penetrating insight into the heart of the human being.

Aurelius Augustinus the rhetorician and scholar, had he followed his ambition, might have become a teacher with some following, or even perhaps a minor provincial statesman of his period. Students of late antiquity might have known his name even today. But Saint Augustine, by following Christ, became also “a hundred times more” in the history of this world. He wrote books that speak to every time and in every language, and he gave us words that ring out through the ages — words that rival any that have ever been uttered in human speech.

There is something of the hundredfold here, although it has been more for our benefit than for his.

"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace" (Confessions X:27).

Happiness: Only For “People in Power”?

What is “happiness”? 

We live in a society that claims that the "real world" is confined to its material elements, and that the ultimate arbiter of rational human interest is empirical science. 

Everything that appears to be outside of these confines belongs to the realm of dreams or delusions, or at best to matters undefinable, or completely relative to the psychological needs, personal “goals,” desires, wishes, and fantasies of different people. 

Of course, we want to affirm the value of ideals like “happiness” (as well as “goodness,” “honor,” “fidelity,” and the other words we use to signify the aspirations we seem to “care about” most in life). Isn’t this what “freedom” is all about? Aren’t we “free to choose” what makes up our happiness? And then, aren’t we “free to choose” different (even opposing) ways of happiness tomorrow, without answering to any authority beyond our own judgment? “I do me” and “you do you” and everything’s fine… as long as you don’t break the law….

So why are we all so anxious, overwhelmed, and… unhappy? 

If happiness is confined materialistic laws and subjective experiments in self-identification, irrational urges, or the whims of the moment, then life is very burdensome indeed for most of us. Human freedom, it turns out, is a very fragile thing in this world. The chance for happiness seems reserved to those who have power - while the rest of us just have to shuffle along as best we can in this limited existence.

Wait, that can’t be right! The human heart cries out against this ultimate cynicism and discouragement. There must be something “more”… but where can we find it? Must we depend on the scraps that fall from the tables of the powerful? 

Here, serious attention to the real human question "what is happiness?" becomes almost “subversive.” The need for happiness, if we confront it truly, will take us beyond this world, beyond everything, toward an Infinite Mystery which is the only reality that truly corresponds to our hearts. It is a religious question, and human cultures throughout history - regardless of how they have attempted to answer it - have always recognized its religious nature.

But if we really believe that there is nothing meaningful for human life beyond this world and our capacity to manipulate it, then the need for ultimate happiness is desperate, unsettling, even pathological.

It is therefore something to be suppressed. We must not ask this question. We must distract ourselves from it, even though it permeates our being. We must live our lives on the shallow surface of every experience.

The truly religious person, however, is someone who is at least seeking the answer. And the Christian claims that the Answer has come into the world, and is seeking us.

This is a basic reason why Christian faith doesn't make any sense to people in our society. This is why people can't understand why it matters to believers. Indeed, this is why many Christians themselves don't understand the place of faith in their own lives.

We have been conditioned to evade ourselves, to suffocate our hearts, to flee from the deep cry within us that cannot be satisfied by anything in this finite world. And this evasion has become a forgetfulness. We have cheapened and falsified all the terms associated with the question of happiness: love, justice, goodness, truth, beauty, freedom. We no longer remember how to ask the question.

No wonder the Christian proposal makes no sense. Luigi Giussani often cites Reinhold Niebuhr's insight: “Nothing is more incomprehensible than the answer to a question that has never been asked.”

There is, of course, still another possibility. There is the possibility of meeting some real people who have actually begun to be happy. The human person might wake up, remember their heart, and discover that they have been controlled by lies.

Nothing is more subversive to the dominant powers of this world than happy people.

Prayer for Peace and the Queen of Peace

Pope Leo XIV has invited us to observe today (Friday, August 22) as a day of fasting and prayer for peace. Today is the “Octave” of the feast of the Assumption, which is appropriately celebrated as the feast of the “Queenship of Mary.” The Blessed Virgin Mary — the Mother of God, the Theotokos — has taken her place in fullness of the glory of the New Creation, by virtue of the singular grace of her Son who preserved her from original sin and all personal sin in order to associate her in a unique way in the history of the redemption of the world. Mary’s stature is entirely the fruit of the saving love of her Son Jesus; her free cooperation with the obedience of Jesus to the Father is itself the gift and fruit of His grace and entirely dependent on His grace. In turn, we might say that her maternal love for the world and for each one of us is an “intrinsic” (and especially beautiful) facet of the grace He gives us as He leads us on the path to our destiny in God’s Kingdom. Mary is our Mother, and through her maternal mediation we are formed in the whole of our humanity as His brothers and sisters.

It is a great consolation to remember that she is our Mother, especially in these times in which we live. As members of a materially wealthy and spiritually impoverished society — in a world of so much confusion, so much danger, so much suffering — we find it increasingly difficult to distract ourselves from the desperate circumstances of the moment and the unknown future that looms before us. We are living on the edge of chaos, with war so much closer that we realize, and with political leadership that gives little evidence of wisdom (and all too much evidence of foolishness).

It is ultimately a blessing to be drawn up so close to the crisis, in that our hearts are shaken and we must recognize our need for Someone greater than our hearts, to whom we can turn and cry out for the wisdom we cannot give ourselves, the path forward we cannot see, the tasks and the endurance we are called to in these days, in the face of turmoil beyond our understanding (but not beyond the goodness and mercy of the One who sustains us and draws us to Himself). It is a special consolation to know in these times the closeness of Mother Mary and the tenderness of her maternal love that remembers everyone, and mysteriously accompanies us even in the darkest and most terrifying moments, when we feel most alone and defenseless. She carries us into the Heart of her Son, Jesus.

For some of our brothers and sisters, the particular nightmare of open war or other degrading forms of violence is already a dreadful daily experience. We pray especially for them today, and we fast — we freely make sacrifices that create space within our bodily persons to remember God, and to draw closer in solidarity to our suffering brothers and sisters.

Saint Bernard: “Invoke the Name of Jesus”

“Are you troubled? Think but of Jesus, speak but the name of Jesus, the clouds disperse, and peace descends anew from heaven. Have you fallen into sin? So that you fear death? invoke the name of Jesus, and you will soon feel life returning. No obduracy of the soul, no weakness, no coldness of heart can resist this holy name; there is no heart which will not soften and open in tears at this holy name.”

~Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

More “Artful August” Scenes

It’s been a wet August, though not especially hot. Here are a bunch of “scenes” that I have worked up with digital art tools in recent weeks. AI is everywhere in the pictorial realm these days, including my own “studios.” Nevertheless, making pictures like these — that begin from real photographs — still requires more “hands-on” work than one might expect.

The horizon of the Blue Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley continues to provide a foundation for most of the scenery I try to create, along with seasonal flowers, creeks, fields, etc. These are various styles: