Since 1900, the Xavier Society for the Blind in New York City has been providing free braille and audio books to blind and visually impaired people worldwide in order for them to learn about, develop, and practice their Catholic faith.
YOU WHO ARE THIRSTY, COME TO THE WATER
Every so often, I get a definite, very clear feeling that Jesus likes having me around. He likes going places with me. He likes the way we travel together.
CRUCIFY HIM!
Interestingly, the scapegoat had to be internally robust and strong, in order to be worthy to bear, or capable of bearing, the collective shadow. So often it’s the family “empath”—the most sensitive, giving and spiritually evolved; the most “different” in some way—who is scapegoated.
EVERYONE’S WAY OF THE CROSS
I once prayed the Stations at Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, Massachusetts, on a shaded allée leading down to the ocean, got bitten by a tick, and contracted Lyme Disease.
LENTEN ALMSGIVING: A CATHOLIC TAKE ON MONEY
The first rule is that it’s okay to save, say, for a house or a child’s college education. But money should be a placeholder. What is our money holding a place for?
ARE YOU ON MY TEAM?
Mary his mother, and John, and possibly a few others, were at the foot of the Cross. But in his final stupendous Agony, by far the most important Person on Christ’s team seemed absent.
THE FIFTH WEEK OF LENT
And he kneels before the whole complicated mess, saves her from being stoned to death, and gives her the blueprint for new life.
CARYLL HOUSELANDER’S GUILT
The book contains passages on the mental suffering, among others, of serial killer Peter Kürten (“The Monster of Düsseldorf”), Hans Christian Andersen, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
LIVING THE GOSPEL AT DOWN HOME RANCH
When Kelly was around 4, they decided to look around and see what her life would be like as an adult. “And what we saw was horrible. We saw isolation.”
Finally, Jerry said, “Well I think we should just build our own place.”
TO CALL MYSELF BELOVED
“And all I ask for housekeeping
I get and pay no fees,
Leeks from the garden, poultry, game,
Salmon and trout and bees.”
FORTY DAYS IN THE DESERT OF A NEW CHILD
“The real bread is the sacrifice. Am I going to choose to help this child grow into who he or she is called to be? Am I open to growing into who I’m called to be because of them? That’s a hidden potency. The seeds are there. But the temptation is to take the shortcut, to give less than your full self.”
THE GREAT FERMATA
At their first rehearsal after a two-year break, they wondered how they’d sound. But right away they started singing the “Kyrie” from the Frank Martin Mass and the music was right there. “It was as if that ‘Lord, have mercy’ had been resounding the whole time and we just picked up where it left off.”
MANNA IN THE DESERT
“True solitude is not the absence of people, but the presence of God. To place our lives before the face of God, to surrender to the movements of God, is to roam free in a space in which we have been given solitude”….