Medjugorje, A Perplexing Pilgrimage

Posted by Lin Wilder
On May 28, 2017
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Medjugorje, A Perplexing Pilgrimage. In 2003, I traveled alone across the world to Medjugorje, a perplexing pilgrimage. But first some background. The apparitions of the Virgin Mary to six young visionaries beginning in 1981 ignited a storm of controversy and persecution. Thirty-six years later, questions remain unanswered to the satisfaction of skeptical Catholic and secular […]

Mud Cookies: Imagine Feeding Your Kids Some?

Posted by Lin Wilder
On May 14, 2017
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“When there is no food for three or four days, the children cry from the pain. So I make them mud cookies to fill up their stomachs.” The missionary priest, Monsignor Patrick Marron from Food for the Poor, quoted a woman living in a village of about two hundred people about 20 miles from Port […]

Silence: Apostacy, Jesuit Priests, 17th Century Japan

Posted by Lin Wilder
On April 9, 2017
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Last December, the movie Silence opened to a conflicting maze of reviews. Some greatly praising the film and others exceedingly critical of the tale of the ‘apostate Jesuit priests’ of seventeenth century Japan. I watched it three days ago and am still pondering its meaning. The film is gripping and relentless. Both intensity and portent […]

Conclave- Robert Harris’ New Novel of Power and Intrigue

Posted by Lin Wilder
On March 26, 2017
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Conclave is the best of Robert Harris’ novels, high praise because Harris is an excellent writer of historical fiction. Each of his books reveals the writer’s journalistic background: Rich in detail and imagery, Harris’ extensive research for each story is evident. Conclave is all of that but much more. This story is riveting, sympathetic and […]

The Prodigal Son Or the Older Brother?

Posted by Lin Wilder
On March 19, 2017
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For converts like me, the story of the prodigal son evokes a tsunami of emotion: gratitude, relief, sorrow and recognition are only a few. But upon reflecting on the well-known parable that Jesus tells the complaining Pharisees and scribes, I began to think about the older brother with an entirely different lens. Rather than my […]

Consequences of Tepid Christianity: The Boston Marathon Bomber’s Widow

Posted by Lin Wilder
On March 12, 2017
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AP File Photo of Katherine Russell I saw Peter Berg’s recently released film, Patriots Day over a month ago. Of the many heroes portrayed in this movie, there is just one person who has taken up residence in my memory. She is a minor character, the woman now known as the “Boston Marathon Bombers widow.” […]

Newman Centers- Lighthouses of Grace in Secular Education

Posted by Lin Wilder
On March 5, 2017
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“If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society… It is the education which gives a man a clear, conscious view of their own opinions and judgements, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in […]

Overcoming Anger: The Final Spiritual Struggle

Posted by Lin Wilder
On January 22, 2017
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We feel it everywhere: Anger. Whether a seething whisper or bellowing roar, resentment, anger, even rage, feels like the fuel of this brand new year as the second decade of the twenty-first century heads south. The source is anyone’s claim. An endless laundry list of injustice, victims and causes. Here in what is arguably the […]

The Walls of Our Unbelief

Posted by Lin Wilder
On December 25, 2016
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It was 1918. The young intellectual was nervous about her upcoming visit to Anne, the widow of Adolf Reinach, killed at the 1917 Battle of Flanders. How could she offer comfort? What could she say? Reinach had been a fellow scholar at the University of Freiberg, an assistant to the great philosopher, the ‘master’ Edmond Husserl. […]

The Labor of Obedience

Posted by Lin Wilder
On September 4, 2016
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The labor of obedience: For many years, the word obedience was a lightning rod to me. The concept connoted all that I disliked about being female: Powerless, submissive, conformance, passivity and the like. But then I became a Christian Catholic and a few years later, an Oblate of St. Benedict. And that word, like so […]

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