I’ll never forget my first day of graduate school. It was in the fall of 2007, and I had beeen accepted to Hartford Seminary’s Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations program. It was familiar territory for me, as I had attended Hartford Seminary for the past two years as an undergraduate to study the Arabic language…
There’s a lightness and clarity that is so charming about the book, The Little Oratory: A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home, by Leila Maria Lawler and David Clayton. I read it all in one night, and I’ll be returning to it soon. The opening line explains this very straight-shooting book’s purpose: “This book is…
“David II Teniers chose to illustrate this story from the Golden Legend: in the sky in the middle of the composition is the crow holding the meagre meal for the two monks in his beak. The water skin and bowl at the two men’s feet in the bottom left-hand corner symbolise the fast they have…
I wanted to stop and take a moment to thank all of you. Sometimes it’s easy to forget, when the comment boxes get rowdy, and everyone is upset about what’s going on, that 1P5 doesn’t just have an audience. We have a community that spans the world. If you’re reading this, it means that most likely,…
I just took a look at the numbers, and July’s fundraising goal is in serious trouble. With just two days left in the month, we’ve only reached 27% of our goal! Will you help us to get as close as possible to our goal in the next 48 hours? No tax-deductible gift is too small, or too large.…
The prayer for the conversion of the Jewish people in the traditional liturgy of Good Friday has been the object of criticism by representatives of the bishops’ conferences of Germany, and of England and Wales. Spokesmen for both these conferences have requested that this prayer be removed from the traditional liturgy and that it be…
“The apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia, issued by Pope Francis on March 19th 2016 and addressed to bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, Christian married couples, and all the lay faithful, has caused grief and confusion to many Catholics on account of its apparent disagreement with a number of teachings of the Catholic Church on faith and…
The news coming in from around the world is grim. Photos and videos of beheadings, in all their grisly detail, flood our inboxes and social media feeds. Media personalities, celebrities, and world leaders have all denounced this barbaric behavior by saying that it does not represent true Islam. But are such assertions true, or simply…
Every day people are faced with making many decisions. Big or small, important or unimportant, this is part of life. And in life, we have to choose some things in preference to others. But choosing doesn’t always involve just “things”. Choosing also involves philosophies. Ways of living. Ways of being. Ways of believing. And often…
Have you ever sat in Mass and felt like this?! I know I have. There have been many times where I have just zoned out. I realise the priest has got to the end of his sermon and I haven’t really heard a word because I was daydreaming. I suppose it doesn’t help when most…
It is integral to human nature: our focus is principally determined by what we are looking at. When we speak to others, we make eye contact. When we move from place to place, we point ourselves in that direction. Pilots face forward. Drivers too. Surgeons don’t stare at the back wall of an operating theater. I’ve yet to…
