Sin and mercy: God joins our dysfunctional family -- Extreme demands, extreme mercy -- Evangelizing on the road to Emmaus -- Revisiting spiritual warfare -- Seeing political corruption with Biblical eyes -- Wise words from the bishop of Rome concerning the clergy sex abuse scandal --René Girard, church father -- The field hospital is open -- The parable of the talents -- Pope Benedict and the logic of gratuity -- Pope Francis and true mercy -- The iPhone app and the return to confession -- The revolutionary message of Palm Sunday -- Reason and faith: The indecipherable writing of Thomas Aquinas -- The myth of the war between science and religion -- Playing at atheism -- Why the sciences will never disprove the existence of God -- Woody Allen's bleak vision -- What faith is and what it isn't -- Why I love my invisible friend -- What makes the Church grow? -- Does religion really have a smart-people problem? -- America needs you, Thomas Aquinas -- Revisiting the argument from motion -- Revisiting the argument from desire -- Einstein and God -- Pope Benedict and how to read the Bible -- Preaching the strange word -- The Genesis problem -- Mother nature is one unreliable lady -- Laudato Si and Romano Guardini -- The hundredth anniversary of Thomas Merton's birth --The Pope, the Congress and a Trappist monk -- Ross Douthat and the Catholic Academy -- John Henry Newman at the Synod on the Family -- A lion of the American church, thoughts of the passing of Cardinal George -- Priests, prophets, kings -- Matter and spirit: St. John's Christmas sermon -- Why you need spiritual food -- Bruce Jenner, the Shadow Council, and St. Irenaeus -- A case for celibacy by priests -- Why Jesus and religion are like two peas in a pod -- What Easter means -- The startlingly good news of the resurrection -- Why the ascension of the Lord matters -- Freedom and discipline: What is our fundamental problem? -- Dietrich von Hildebrand and our relativistic age -- Pope Benedict XVI among the Germans -- The death of God and the loss of human dignity -- Your life does not belong to you -- Why goodness depends on God -- The tiny whispering sound -- St. Irenaeus and the God who doesn't need us -- The glory of God is a human being fully alive -- Thomas More and the Bishop of Rome -- Why St. Junípero Serra matters today -- Why having a heart of gold is not what Christianity is about -- A no to a no is a yes -- Brian Williams, Chris Matthews, and letting the fly out of the fly bottle -- We've been here before, same -sex marriage and the room of tears -- Love, tolerance, and the making of distinctions -- The Waze of Providence --What the hell? -- Pope Benedict as a witness to God -- A prophetic pope and the tradition of Catholic social teaching -- The cleansing of the Temple -- Suffering and joy: Stephen Fry, Job, and the cross of Jesus -- God and the tsunami -- Stephen Colbert, J.R.R. Tolkein, John Henry Newman, and the providence of God -- Hospital-land and the divinization of one's passivities -- The dangers of the prosperity gospel -- The lesson of Calcutta -- A saint of darkness -- The lesson of Lough Derg -- A tale of two skulls -- The fire at Namugongo -- A persecuted church and its heroes -- A message in blood: ISIS and the meaning of the Cross -- The joy of evangelizing -- What are your waiting for?