"Love is as much shown in small acts of care and attention as it is in big words and bold deeds." americamagazine.org/faith/20…

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

You've heard that walkable neighborhoods are illegal to build. The part you haven't heard: they're illegal to finance, too. The untold story, revealed here.

On this date, Fr. John Linus Sullivan OP baptized me into the pilgrim city of God. Deos Gratias! May I someday join him in the heavenly city!

I have never been so convinced that hope has to become who we are and what we do. --Cyril O'Regan My Theological Life: Recollections and Anticipations | Church Life Journal | University of Notre Dame (hubs.la/Q04kDJBT0)

In a two-way race in 2024, Donald Trump got 26.5% of the vote in City of Los Angeles. In a three-way race in 2026, Spencer Pratt has 26.7% of the vote. I'm not sure what the mystery is that demands a conspiratorial explanation.

­­We asked @Terencejsweeney, a brilliant young philosopher grounded in the Augustinian tradition who teaches at Leo’s old gaff @VillanovaU how deeply the Augustinian Pope knitted the insights of The City of God into Catholic social teaching in Magnifica Humanitas … his answer makes gripping reading thetablet.co.uk/features/leo…

Basically, the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me. But read the article and decide for yourself!

In what will certainly become one of the most fundamental speeches of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV told the Spanish Parliament, before receiving a 7-minute standing ovation: "The defense of human life is neither a partisan issue nor a confessional interest: it is a goal of civilization." "If life ceases to be recognized as a fundamental value, what future can our societies have?" he said, speaking to a gathering of politicians, many supporting abortion and euthanasia. "Can a community that casts into the shadows the unborn child, the elderly, the sick, those who suffer in silence, or those who depend entirely on the care of others be called fully just?" "Every human life must be recognized and safeguarded from conception to its natural end, in every circumstance of its existence. When this certainty is obscured, the most vulnerable are the first victims, and the law loses its deepest meaning: to serve and protect every person." "For this reason, the moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect and love those lives that are most fragile," he said, repeating what John Paul II emphasized decades ago. Starting his speech he commented that Church's is the "message offered in the spirit of service to the human person." "When the Church addresses anything concerning public life, she does so while respecting the proper mission of institutions and the legitimate responsibility of those who have received the mandate to legislate," Pope Leo said, emphasizing "the Church offers a reflection born of the desire to serve the common good." He hailed Spain as country that "has known how to view the human being as more than just a cog in the social, economic or political order. It has recognized the human being as a creature open to truth, endowed with freedom, and driven by a thirst for eternity that no temporal reality can quench -- in a word, as someone whose dignity takes precedence over all utility and to whose service legislative action is subject." He said it was Catholic orders that "helped to shape a legal and moral consciousness capable of remembering that authority always entails responsibility and that every human being must be recognized as a subject of rights and duties." "That aspiration continues to resonate today: that dignity, justice and the common good should be the measure of social relations, both at the national and international levels." Referring multiple times to his "Magnifica Humanitas" encyclical, he said: "When the common good ceases to be a shared horizon, public action runs the risk of fragmenting into partial interests, incapable of safeguarding what belongs to all." "In this context, the family — the primary human reality and the natural foundation of the community — takes on particular importance," Pope Leo said. "The family will always be the first school of humanity, where one learns, before anywhere else, the basic grammar of living together: welcoming life, caring for others, forgiving, serving and belonging." "Human life can never be treated as a commodity," the pope said. "A law does not attain its true greatness merely by having been formally enacted; it attains it when, in addition to being valid in form, it can stand before the dignity of the person and pass that test without shame." "I invite you, then, to lift your gaze to the world around you, not to turn away from reality, but to remember that every decision by public authorities affects real people, especially those who have less power to make their voices heard." "The expanse of one’s vision consists precisely in looking more deeply at what is at stake in every public decision. This is why, alongside technical solutions and legal reforms, a moral renewal is also needed." Video: Vatican Media (fragment of speech follows)

R.I.P. Robert Louis Wilken. He wrote some of the most well-written, engaging, and profound works of historical theology I’ve ever read.

Trump quits his interview: "You're either crooked or you're stupid…Your elections are crooked. You're crooked. Meet The Press is crooked. And so is ABC, and CBS, and CNN…Alright, let's call it quits because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time."

"The substitution of artificial intelligence for human intelligence threatens the formation of the person as a knower and lover of truth." americamagazine.org/faith-an…

In this week’s @The_Tablet newsletter @Nonamamulashvi @Terencejsweeney & Guy Consolmagno on Pope Leo’s AI thing; Rabbi Howard Cooper battles for the soul of Judaism; Roxanna Panufnik bedazzles @Joanna Moorhead @Dr_L_Strickland uncovers Leibniz playing Catholic @SusanGrayMeets admires Constable’s churches @djtaylorwriter reveals where Sir Alf Ramsey’s lah-di-dah accent came from @beardyhowse asks, Why are there no Catholics in The Archers? Mark Lawson spots Oliviery mannerisms in Kenneth Branagh’s Prospero; Lavinia Byrne picks new spiritual books @Austeni finds the “life lessons” of an Irish writer-farmer on the banal side a new poem by John Duffy @JonathanTulloch’s nature notes @AnthonyGardnerA news letters books arts puzzles the rest email.digitalvirtue.net/t/r-…

"The question, in the Augustinian tradition, has always been: Which city are you going to live in?" @The_Tablet thetablet.co.uk/features/leo…

Who will join @chaven and @davidpdeavel as they establish our new non-fiction program at @stthomashouston ?

Evangelization does not come naturally to most of us. You can sense this in the awkwardness you feel when you invite someone to come to Mass or talk to a non-believer about Eucharistic adoration. --Terence Sweeney hubs.la/Q04g19rZ0

I think Jesus looked down with love and wrote Miriam. I can imagine him tracing the letters in the sand carefully. --Terence Sweeney hubs.la/Q04hMyWQ0