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The Deacon's Bench

It’s Wednesday in late July. The Vatican has rolled up the sidewalks and the pope is out of town and the news cycle is slow. Hence, this:

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel is many things to many people – a study project to an atheist student, a dream (or nightmare) assignment to a photographer, an illustrated Bible to the believer. It is also a kind of evolutionary marker in the Grand Quest, as depicted in the reach between Creator and Creature-the chasm of knowledge…

I was taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph, from Chestnut Hill, Pa. (just outside Philly), and remember tales of the black-habit-wearing nuns heading to Cape May for their summer vacation, where they’d sit on the sand, in habit and veil and everything, and soak up the sun. (One of the sisters who taught me…

More dioceses (like mine) are opening special residences, houses of discernment, for men considering a vocation. The Los Angeles Times this morning looks at one in the Diocese of San Bernadino: The morning sun has barely crept above the horizon when 13 beginning seminarians emerge from dormitory rooms and wander into the chapel of their…

As promised yesterday, here’s the link to the story showing the Little Sisters of the Poor taking their first profession. It’s also available for viewing on our YouTube channel.

To save money, more Americans are evidently choosing to skip the funeral parlor and bury their loved ones from home. Besides cutting costs, this is transforming the experience of death for some families. From the NY Times: When Nathaniel Roe, 92, died at his 18th-century farmhouse here the morning of June 6, his family did…

The Georgia Bulletin has picked up on a growing phenomenon: priests who blog. The paper has turned the spotlight on a couple local clergy — including one FOB (Friend of the Bench)— who are staying connected with the faithful through their trusty laptops. Read on: In June Father Victor Galier was away in Japan for…

I got an e-mail this afternoon from a deacon who appreciated some of my thoughts here, in the current issue of America. Then he added this: Just before I was ordained in 2002 I asked one of our professors, a priest who was head of worship for the diocese what the presbyterate thought of the…

“Faith is also a process of Incarnation – of becoming who and what you were born to be. When you are doing what you are meant to do, the queasiness vanishes. Identifying a calling is no easy thing. Following a calling can sometimes be difficult, but it is always grace-filled, because when you understand what…

That’s one of the responses we got when my TV show “Currents” visited some parishes this past Sunday and asked the question, “What’s NFP?” This week marks Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, and so we decided to see just how aware people really are. Short answer: not very. An overwhelming number of people leaving church…
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