What’s New
Hail!
Most of us are familiar with the very beginnings of the Christmas story when the messenger of God greeted Mary: “Hail, full of grace!” It was a very special occasion, and perhaps “Hail” is the best English word to communicate that the conversation following the...
Seeing What is There
My wife and I own an old farmhouse dating to the 1880s on a small rural road in the foothills of the Catskills. The scenery is beautiful in all seasons, but when we wake now in December around 7 A.M. the house and its surrounding tree-covered hills are still dark....
What or Who?
Parents teach their children to say “thank you” when people give them a material gift, treat them with kindness, or provide them with some kind of service. But children also might receive the impression that some of the good things of life come to us from a vague and...
Eucharist as Covenant Renewal
Thank you to Fr. Charlie Currie, SJ for sharing this homily from our IVC Mass of Thanksgiving to close the All Staff Gathering on November 22nd. The Mass was offered on behalf of IVC’s friends and supporters and your intentions. It is a privilege to be celebrating...
God, in Whose Image We Are Made, Is Compassion
This piece, by IVC Spiritual Reflector Fr. William Barry, SJ, is a reflection on the spiritual readings and guide being used by IVC volunteers across the country. I have been asked to write a reflection to accompany our reading of chapters two and three of Tattoos on...
The River of Life
I was meeting Fr. “Bo” T. M. Lyons, spiritual director extraordinaire, for dinner at Hogwild, a great barbeque place. I had ordered the barbeque ribs and Fr. Bo was having the one pound plus barbeque pork chop. Father Bo was in a philosophical mood and started one of...
Transformers
Fantasy “transformers” are usually robots or other creatures that make radical shape-changing and other drastic modifications from one form into another. The most common real-life transformers are those that take very high-voltage electricity and change it to the...
When the Places Are Thinnest
There is a moment during every work day when I am most receptive to the Divine. It happens right around 10am. I’ve finished all my email for the moment. I’ve downed a cup of coffee. My to-do list is yet to be tackled. Some things are complete. Others are yet to begin....
Kinship
This piece, by National Board Member Jim Haggerty, is a reflection on the spiritual readings and guide being used by IVC volunteers across the country. In Chapter One of Greg Boyle’s book, Tattoos on the Heart, pp 26-27, a fifteen-year old boy, Rigo, at a...