The Study at the Roman College
Two Lamps, Issue 20: Saint Robert Bellarmine and Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Bellarmine's study at the Roman College, an autumn afternoon in 1585
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.
The Naples Find
What follows is the document recovered from the Jesuit archive in Naples in September 2026, translated from the Latin by Claire Ashworth and incorporated into the record with the permission of the archive.
The Argument Building
He wrote to Mara from the kitchen table on Sunday evening, the October dark fully arrived outside the window, the house quiet around him.
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.
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.
The Cell at Cartagena
Two Lamps, Issue 19: Saint Peter Claver and Saint John Chrysostom, the Jesuit residence in Cartagena de Indias, an evening in 1625 as a slave ship approaches the harbor
Sofia's Materials
What follows is drawn from materials brought to the October gathering by Sofia Baranska of Kraków, comprising three documents from the Baranski-Kowalczyk custody.
Faith & Life
The Exhausted Middle
On the quiet majority, the parish, and where healing actually starts