Homilies & Reflections
Stop Counting
Peter asks about forgiving seven times. Jesus says seventy-seven - inverting the oldest pattern of human violence. Homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Deacon Michael Halbrook
Faith, family, work, and life - all intertwined.
Permanent deacon of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. Husband, father of four sons, builder of Catholic technology, and writer of essays, fiction, and homilies.
Faith & Life
What Is Actually Asked of You
The most common thing Catholics get wrong about dying is believing the Church requires them to endure everything medicine can do. It does not, and it never has. What is actually permitted, and what to do about it this week.
Another Voice ↗
Essays
The Sanitary Food Preparation Act
The law that takes effect in Illinois today passed at two in the morning on Halloween, by the narrowest possible margin, inside a bill about food safety.
Faith & Life
The Exhausted Middle
On the quiet majority, the parish, and where healing actually starts
Ad Alta ↗
Reflections
What the Wait Actually Buys You
Two expected payoffs don't materialize when you wait to ship something whole. Three quieter ones actually do. On what the wait actually buys you.
Ad Alta ↗
Reflections
What I'm Not Doing This Week
Last week I promised a new offering would open for booking today. It isn't. Here's the decision behind the delay - and why the delay is itself the essay.
Another Voice ↗
Essays
The Modern Steel Mill
Granite City has lived next to industry for 130 years. Data centers are the industrial technology of our era, and we already know how to do this - if we're willing to negotiate instead of refuse.
